Dreams Reborn
by Fritz Baugh
Summary: December 1997: Timeline Year 15. Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Winston Zeddemore have returned to the company they helped build. Egon and Janine are finally together. Is there still a place for Eduardo, Kylie, Roland, and Garrett?
1. Chapter 1

**Extreme Ghostbusters: Dreams Reborn, Part One**

By EGB Fan, Ben King, and Fritz Baugh  
GBI Case File GBNY-1997-15/321

* * *

_Legal Stuff that's Boring Unless You're Louis Tully..._

**Ghostbusters** is©1984 Columbia Pictures. **Ghostbusters 2** is ©1989 Columbia Pictures **The Real Ghostbusters** is ©1986 Columbia Pictures Television and DiC Productions. **Extreme Ghostbusters** is ©1997 Columbia Pictures Television and Adelaide Productions. The 88MPH comic book is © 2004 Sony and 88MPH Studios. _Ghostbusters: The Return_ is © 2004 Sony and iBooks. No use of characters and images associated with the above is intended for profit, or to challenge the copyrights of the above holders. Characters not appearing in the above copyrighted works are to be considered © Fritz Baugh and/or their respective creators.

* * *

Writer's Note:  
This story serves as a thematic sequel to Kingpin1055's "As Dreams Fade"; while it starts during the EGB episode "Back In The Saddle", it also is the first story in the post-EGB scenario which grows to include the fan fiction of Ghostbusters International.

* * *

**Ghostbusters Central  
November 21, 1997--During the Events of "Back In the Saddle, Part One"  
Ghostbusters Omnibus Timeline Year Fifteen**

* * *

"Oh yeah?" Dr. Ray Stantz remarked. "What about that biker punk ghost back in '91, the one terrorizing the Jersey Turnpike?" Stantz was a pudgy man in his late 30's (he'd turned 38 a little over a month before), with auburn hair and wide brown eyes. A full growth of stubble made him look less "baby-faced" than in years past--he'd been contemplating how he'd look with a full beard for months. He was dressed in a khaki flight suit with brown trim on the cuffs and collar, his last name on a patch on his left chest, and a curious symbol on his right shoulder: a white, cartoony ghost with a red circle around it crossed by a slash.

The man next to him made a disgusted noise and pinched his face, hiding his green eyes. "Oh, do NOT remind me of that one..." he said in a smooth voice. A bit older than Ray (43 to be exact), you wouldn't know it from his dark brown hair (which, by this time, had to be augmented by dye), Dr. Peter Venkman was dressed in a flight suit of identical cut, though it was brown with bluish-green trim and his pant cuffs weren't tucked into his boots.

The large black man on the other side of Venkman laughed heartily, and gently punched him in the shoulder. "Ol' Pete trapped on top of the car, proton gun in hand, bitching about it all the way. Oh, yeah, I won't forget that one." Winston Zeddemore's flight suit was aqua, trimmed in red. He'd grown a mustache (as he'd had when he'd first met these guys fifteen years before) and his hair sported a couple of white streaks. At 44, he was the oldest man in the room.

"You weren't the one who was picking bugs out of his teeth for weeks afterward." Venkman continued whining. "And do you know how cold it gets going down the Turnpike at 70 miles per hour?"

"The airflow would carry thermal energy away quickly, granted..." the fourth man in the room noted. Professor Egon Spengler was the tallest of the four, had blue eyes with an intense look of curiosity, and sported a strange blond haircut that was beginning to lighten in the back. His flight suit was greyish blue, with pink trim. And he was exactly 40 years old.

It was the occassion of his fortieth birthday that had brought the foursome together after some six years. Janine Melnitz, the Ghostbusters' longtime secretary, had spent weeks secretly calling the other three behind Egon's back, making arrangements and getting schedules coordinated, so that she could arrange the ultimate birthday surprise.

And so far it had gone perfectly. Egon and Janine had arrived back at Ghostbusters headquarters after a lunch date to find Venkman, Ray, and Winston waiting to spring their surprise on their old friend.

Probably just as surprised were Roland Jackson, Garrett Miller, Kylie Griffin, and Eduardo Rivera--the new team of Ghostbusters Egon had hastily assembled a few months before.

And then a call had come in, which Venkman answered. With very little cajoling, he'd persuaded Ray and Winston to go on the job for "old time's sake"...Egon's reluctance was greater (sensing the confusion of his students) but he ultimately relented.

The foursome had kicked ghost ass and taken names, just as they had for years before.

There was a knock as aforementioned Janine Melnitz--a 39 year old redhead who was currently wearing a blue blazer and skirt--walked up the steps into the second floor rec area the four men were currently occupying. "I was wondering if you goons wanted to take a break for dinner. You've been jawing all afternoon..."

Ray looked at his watch. "Holy crap...she's right...we've been up here for like four hours..."

"A lot to catch up on" Venkman noted. "West Pier Pizza still around?"

Janine nodded. "Yeah...but I didn't say I was getting anything for you, Doctor Venkman..."

Venkman scratched his forehead with his middle finger. "You'd think that after fifteen years you'd call me Peter..."

"That would imply that I could stand you or something." she replied, using the middle finger of her right hand to push up her triangular, green glasses.

She left the room to go make the call. Ray, Winston, and even Egon held looks of intense amusement. "Didn't take long for you two to find your groove again..." Ray remarked, chuckling.

"Forget me. So tell me, Spengs, inquiring minds want to know..." Venkman's face assumed it's familiar cheshire grin. "How long did it take _you_ to find your groove with her again?"

Ray and Winston looked at each other. There were several things that they were aware of that Venkman was not--because they knew if he ever _did_ find out, he'd probably explode...

"It was...a recent development. In fact, she interrupted the first class I had with the new Ghostbusters. She was vital in getting the company up and running again." Egon answered.

"What about the non-business part?" Venkman asked, nudging him.

"Peter..." Winston interjected.

"That's quite all right." Egon answered. "That came a little later. I hadn't seen her for six years--I honestly couldn't be certain she still had any...feeling for me. A rather nasty crisis with an insectoid entity ended up putting those fears to rest, and we've been dating regularly since."

"It's always a supernatural crisis for you two, isn't it?" Venkman laughed, and Ray and Winston couldn't help but chuckle also.

"Glad to hear it, Egon." Ray said, patting him on the back. "I mean, you got some catching up to do compared to the rest of us..."

"Pizza will be here in about twenty minutes." Janine broke in, reappearing on the stairs. "I closed the office--it's after five, after all--so he'll just ring the doorbell." She went over to a chair and sat down, stretching her arms. "I gotta admit--I've spent the last few hours wishing I was a fly on the wall...wondering what the heck you guys were talking about..."

"You're as much a part of this team as any of us!" Ray responded. "You should've closed down early and come on up!"

"Would've cramped the story I told about nailing those five mermaids back in '85, but yeah...I could'a not had to get up and get my own coffee..." Venkman said brightly.

"What was it that Fallagar dude called us...'the Five Who Are One'?" Winston mused.

"I think you arrived just in time, Janine." Egon said, putting an arm around her. "I gathered from Ray's last comment before you arrived he was about to pull out baby pictures..."

Ray's face lit up the way only a proud father's could. "You are so so right, Professor..." he opened his wallet and pulled out a photo of a baby, about a year and a half old, who already had a slightly bushy mop of curly brownish-red hair.

"Oh my gosh..." Janine almost squeaked. "He is _adorable_..."

"Eric Stantz, most cutest little boy in the universe." Ray beamed "Of course, I'm biased..."

"Understandable, and not without justification..." Egon nodded, something approaching a smile on his face. "How's his mother doing?"

"Well, her bosses like to keep calling her away on 'company business'...but I knew she had lots of those obligations when I married her. Fortunately, even those guys give time off for the holidays, so she's home with him right now. Hm...actually, I should probably call..."

"Sorry to steal your thunder, man..." Winston interjected. "But I am going to dazzle them with _my_ pick for cutest kid in the universe...feast your eyes on Miss Charlene Zeddemore..."

"She's beautiful..." Janine beamed. "My gosh, she looks so much like Kaila it's scary..." The girl in the picture was about five, with short dark hair, and was dressed in a yellow jersey.

"Hm...I would have to say that those are definitely Winson's eyes, though..." Egon noted.

"I've got you all beat!!" Venkman said with mock drama. "You can only subject them to one kid--I have two!! The pride and joys of the Venkman clan--Lady and Gentlemen, Behold!!" With that, he dramatically removed the picture and handed it to Janine and Egon.

"Oh, mercy...Oscar is getting so big..." Janine noted. "Power Ranger fan I take it?"

"Hey, he's almost ten, remember? And how did you know?"

"I recognize the t-shirt...I spent '94-'95 working in a day care facility, thinking maybe actually dealing with screaming brats all day might drown the ticking of the biological clock..." She nudged Egon. "It didn't work by the way..." He subtly turned just a little red.

The almost-ten year-old with the dark hair and the Ranger t-shirt was not technically Peter Venkman's son--he was the son of violinist Andre Wallance and celloist Dana Barrett. But Andre had divorced Dana and skipped to Europe when the boy was practically still a newborn, and a few months later Venkman reentered Dana's life. Oscar and Peter had bonded so quickly one wouldn't know they weren't father and son--even though it had taken three more years for Peter and Dana to finally marry.

But he wasn't alone in the picture. Next to Oscar was a girl of about four, with unkempt curly brown hair and both a set of emerald eyes and cheshire smile that could only have come from Peter Venkman.

Janine shook her head, grinning. "And this little girl...I feel pity for her, having you for a father...thank goodness she got more of her Mom's looks..."

"Jessica Venkman..." Egon mused. "I'm sure in about ten years she shall be wrapping boys around her little finger. Though that shirt looks overly large for her..."

"She barely wears anything we buy for her" Venkman rolled his eyes. "She prefers to raid Oscar's closet for his leftovers...heck, sometimes she steals stuff he still wears..."

The door buzzer rang.

"Okay, here's the play..." Janine stood up. "Dr. Venkman distracts Slimer for old time's sake while I go pay for the pizza."

Venkman grumbled, but didn't say no.

* * *

The dinner was relatively silent until close to the end. "Man, how long has it been since all five of us sat down to eat together?" Winston asked.

Venkman put down his half-eaten slice of pizza. "It would've been before the accident..."

"The accident..." Ray nodded, suddenly looking contemplative.

On what ended up being one of the very last cases the four original Ghostbusters dealt with, a hungry ghost raided a candy store. During the battle, an innocent bystander had been hit by a car...

The innocent bystander happened to be Janine Melnitz, sent out on an errand by Venkman just before the call.

"That's when everything started to go wrong." Venkman said, with uncommon gravity.

Egon shook his head. "The turning point was the incident at Stonehenge with the 'Zodiac Lords'...after that, Earth's flow of PKE was seriously drained...depleted to levels that were frighteningly low. New York's ambient energy throughout much of the Nineties was a few Twinkie crumbs..."

Ray nodded. "According the Order of Hermes, it's been the lowest level of energy since their recorded history started in the Eighth Century."

"That's not what I meant..." Venkman returned. "Maybe the Zodiac thing was what made things go down the toilet for Ghostbusters Inc. The accident is what began to screw things for the Ghostbusters."

Janine rubbed her temples. "It took years before I even remembered the accident...it was the last thing, after I finally remembered what happened before..."

"And none of that makes you angry?" Venkman asked.

"I gave up my anger over that a long time ago, Dr. Venkman." she replied. "I had enough problems of my own making over the last few years to keep dwelling on that..."

"Well, maybe I haven't...maybe it isn't healthy, but I haven't..."

Egon stood up. "Peter, I..."

"Peter, why the hell are you doing this?" Ray shouted, grabbing Venkman's arm.

"Get your damn hands off me, Francine!!" Venkman snarled, shaking off Ray's grip. "I'm doing this because this little reunion _has_ been so great...the four of us, together again kicking ghost ass...behaving like a family again...and it just brings it all back--how pissed off I am that this asshole could just throw it away like he did!!"

Egon's jaw clenched. "I told you the reasoning. Our business was dying. There was no reason to keep hemmoraging money the way we were."

Venkman's face contorted into a snarl. "That's bullshit and you know it. We were partners--you, Ray, and me. That decision should've been made by all of us--instead you went behind our backs, called that asshole Tully to draft the document, and we didn't find out until it was a done deal."

"Pete..." Winston said with a tone of warning to his voice.

"Dr. Venkman..." Janine said.

"Let him finish." Egon stated simply.

"You betrayed us. You betrayed this company. And damn it, you betrayed _me_, and nearly twenty years of friendship! All so you could crawl back into your shell--all because you were afraid of being hurt again. You realized you were dangerously close to enjoying yourself--and found a way out!!"

Venkman was in Egon's face now. "And then what happens? You get a bunch of f--ing pimply-faced teenagers to be your 'new Ghostbusters'!! _And you don't say word one to any of the rest of us!!_ You know how I found out--f--ing Allmusic TV News!! My...'old friend' couldn't be bothered to call us...but some bubble bleach blonde TV reporter sure knows!!"

"Peter that's enough!!" Janine shouted.

"Anything else, Peter?" Egon asked.

"Yeah. This." Venkman snarled.

With that, Peter Venkman delivered a right cross to Egon Spengler's jaw, sending the taller man's glasses hurtling into the middle of one of the half-eaten pizzas, and the taller man himself into the railing of the staircase.

"That is definitely ENOUGH!!" Winston said forcefully, grabbing Venkman to keep him from continuing any planned assault. Janine and Ray, meanwhile, pulled Egon up, both looking concerned by the trickle of blood coming from his mouth.

"I'm all right." Egon said simply, wiping his mouth with his left hand.

Venkman looked at his own right hand. "Y'know...that wasn't nearly as satisfying as I thought it would be..."

With Egon apparently all right, Janine looked at Venkman, eyes flashing with anger. "You son of a bitch..." she snarled, ready to take a poke at the man herself...

Egon put a hand on her shoulder. "No." he said simply. And walked over to Venkman.

"Peter...did you stop to think for one moment...one moment...what the last six years have been like for _me_?" There was a tone in Egon's voice none of them heard very often--emotions simmering just below the boiling point. "Every time a wedding invitation appeared in my mailbox. Every time a birth announcemnt appeared. And all I could do was send some congratulatory note--because I didn't feel I had the right to do anything else. Because I was the one who hurt everybody."

"You at least had your wives...your children...and even to some degree each other." Egon's voice cracked. "Oh damn..." he interrupted himself, realizing what was happening. "I had _nothing_...save this firehouse full of the memories of everybody I drove away...the metaphorical ghosts that laughed, mocked, and tortured me every day and every night"

The emotion was palpable now...his voice was breaking...something even Ray and Venkman were hard-pressed to remember happening before. And none of them had been there in 1993--when a flagged marriage license on his computer prompted Egon to destroy about 500 of his own lab equipment; the last time actual tears had formed in the physicist's eyes.

"You don't think I've spent every day regretting what I did, Peter?! That I didn't regret shutting out and driving away the only real brothers I've ever had, Ellis be damned? That I didn't spend sleepless nights wondering how in Hiesenburg's name I could drive the woman I love out of my life forever?"

Egon inhaled a couple of times, trying--and mostly failing--to collect himself. He shook his head. "There's nothing you could say to me that could come close to what I've said to myself a thousand times, Peter Venkman. And if you never forgive me for what I did...well...that's acceptable...because I will never be able to forgive myself..."

Venkman stood immobile...shocked...his own emotions roiling. Winston let him go--he knew there was no danger of a second attack now.

Ray and Janine had both lost it at this point, and were both hugging their old firend, both in tears. "I forgave you a long time ago, Egon...I didn't understand...maybe I never will...but you're my friend..." Ray managed to say.

"You're family, man." Winston added. "We may never, the four of us, face down any moldy Sumerian gods ever again...but that doesn't change what we mean to each other. And if we didn't believe that...we never woulda come here today." With that, he joined the huddle.

Venkman wiped his eyes, which were beginning to moisten also. "Catharsis..." he said. "Sometimes that's all it takes...for butthead physicists _and_ asshole parapsychologists..."

"Egon...I'm sorry about using you for an impromptu punching bag...I..." Venkman finally lost it too. "I just missed you so f--ing much..."

The five charter members of Ghostbusters Inc. stood in a group hug for a good while, their bond being reannointed in a sea of tears.

Whatever the future would bring, they knew they would never be parted--not in the way they were for the last six years--ever again.

* * *

**Jackson Residence  
December 1997 **

* * *

"JOEY! Come back here and get into these pants! Casey, Ryan, Amy - make sure you've got everything! Don't go without your sister, Marcus. TARA! Get your butt out of bed! Roland, get in there and drag your sister out of bed!"

This was fairly standard from Sharon Jackson on a weekday morning. With seven children, it was always a struggle to get them all ready for the school run in time. But at least this morning her husband Phil had left for work early and wasn't complicating matters by looking for his keys or something.

Roland Jackson, Phil and Sharon's oldest son, rapped loudly on his younger sister Tara's bedroom door before daring to enter. Once inside, he picked his way through discarded lipsticks and magazines on the floor and crossed the room to the bed. Tara was there, only her mass of black mini-braids visible as she had buried her face in the pillow and shrouded her entire body in sheets. Roland reached out a tentative hand and shook her, slowly at first but then harder when she showed no sign of budging.

"I'm awake," grumbled Tara. "Kinda wish I wasn't though," she added, clutching both hands to her head and burrowing deeper under the covers.

"Are you hung over?" Roland asked suspiciously.

"Of course not," murmured Tara, not very convincingly. "Can you please ask Mom to phone school and tell them I'm sick?"

"What were you doing last night?" demanded her brother.

"You expect me to remember?" she retorted.

Rolling his eyes, Roland turned on his heel and made for the stairs. He had three pickups to make and he was already late. He almost tripped over his three-year-old brother Joey on the bottom of the stairs, and then collided with his youngest sister Amy who was chasing the little boy with a pair of jeans tucked under one arm.

"Tara's sick," announced Roland, wandering into the kitchen where Sharon was trying to salvage a dropped lunch bag while her sons Marcus, Ryan and Casey were demolishing slices of toast. "Shall I drive Marcus, Mom?"

"That'd be great, honey," Sharon smiled gratefully. "Come on, you three - hurry up and eat that goddamn toast! You'll be late again!"

As happened every morning, all the members of the Jackson clan eventually got on their way despite their efforts to hinder one another. Sharon drove Ryan, Casey, Amy and Joey to school and preschool respectively; Marcus was driven off in Roland's blue Mustang, which was usually how he got to high school when Tara was too rat-faced to walk with him. Marcus didn't like this arrangement much. He was nearly thirteen, and insisted that he could walk to school alone. His mother always retorted to this with, "When you actually are thirteen, then we'll talk about it again."

* * *

Dropping Marcus off at school meant that Roland was late collecting his friend and colleague Kylie Griffin, but he needn't have worried too much. Kylie woke up that morning only to discover that her alarm clock was smashed on the floor. She blinked down at the mangled collection of wires in surprise, and after a few moments a likely explanation suddenly occurred to her.

"Pagan." Kylie's dark-green eyes narrowed on the black-and-white cat snoozing contentedly at the foot of her double bed. "Did you do that?"

"Mrrrow," Pagan returned evasively, opening one eye to look at her.

Kylie knew that as soon as she got out of bed, Pagan would be pawing at her shins demanding to be fed. She rolled over in bed and instinctively put a hand on the large, cold empty space next to her. She couldn't understand why, but suddenly Pagan wasn't filling the void of loneliness that had threatened to open up ever since the death of the one remaining person Kylie loved: her great-grandmother Rose Lockyer. Rose wasn't the only person to go out of Kylie's life: her mother had walked out when she was six, her only friend Jack had disappeared soon after (fortunately he had since been found, but only recently) and even her father, who loved her dearly, hadn't been around much since work commitments dragged him away from home.

After so much heartache, Kylie had vowed never to let anybody get close again. She still had her cat, who had been with her since kitten-hood for about seven years, and she was prepared to risk loving him. People, however, were an entirely different matter. If a person you loved left you, the pain was horrible - Kylie knew. But then why, she asked herself, had she recently taken to lying awake in the darkness wondering if perhaps it was worth the risk not to have to spend every night alone? As much as she tried to deny it during the daylight hours, there was someone she had considered taking home with her a few evenings. He was a good-looking guy: tanned with a good body and a Hispanic accent that was actually quite sexy. It was only natural, Kylie supposed, for her to wake in the dead of night and wonder how it would feel to have him sleeping next to her… maybe even touching her.

Kylie climbed out of bed, showered and then fed her cat. The fantasy seemed ridiculous to her in the morning light. There was a reason why she went home alone every night. Physical attraction was all very well, but she didn't even like the guy. Of course arguably that meant there was less chance of her getting hurt…

Shaking the mutinous thoughts from her mind, Kylie checked the time on her VCR. She wouldn't be too late for Roland if she dressed fairly speedily. She could have something to eat at the firehouse. She quickly ran a comb through her dark hair, climbed into her shabby skirt and tank top and then started on her blue-black Goth-style makeup. Thinking about it, she was sure that none of the people she knew now had ever seen her face as it really was. She was aware that her slightly alarming image was largely her method of keeping people away. She wore her makeup like a mask: people couldn't see her face, and so felt less inclined to try and see beyond it.

Kylie had just reached the curb when Roland drew his car to a halt beside it. She climbed in, buckled her seatbelt and gave her friend a watery smile.

"Sorry I'm late," Roland apologised, pulling the car into gear. "My brothers and sisters were all over the place this morning. There was barely room to move."

"Huh," muttered Kylie. "Wanna switch?"

"Are you ok?" Roland asked anxiously. He knew Kylie lived alone, and he simply could not imagine what that must be like.

"I'm fine," shrugged Kylie, feeling better now that she had another human being to keep her company. "Just wondering how safe my job is."

"It'll be fine," Roland smiled reassuringly.

"Taking the scenic route, aren't we?" asked Kylie, as Roland turned the car.

"Garrett asked me to pick him up from the gym this morning," he explained.

* * *

Garrett Miller was a paraplegic sports enthusiast who kept himself fitter than a lot of able-bodied men. On that particular morning he was beating the life out of one of the unfortunate punching bags at the gym he visited regularly, hoping to relieve a good amount of frustration before he got to work.

"Whoa, Garrett!" He was suddenly interrupted by Liz, an aerobics instructor he knew fairly well. "Whose face are you imagining that is?"

"No one's," Garrett smiled up at her. "And that's the truth."

"Something on your mind?"

"Yeah. I think I'm about to be ousted."

"Ousted?" Liz echoed confusingly.

"At work," explained Garrett. "Don't you read the papers?"

"Aw, you'll be fine," Liz said reassuringly. "I think in your line of work it's a case of youth triumphing over experience."

"My lift ought to be here soon," Garrett suddenly announced, glancing down at his watch. "I'll probably see you later."

"Do you even have a home?" Liz asked sarcastically.

"Yes, but you should be glad that I never go to it," retorted Garrett. "I probably just about keep this place in business."

* * *

As Roland was running a little late, Garrett had a few minutes' wait outside the gym. Soon enough, however, the blue Mustang arrived. Garrett hoisted himself onto the back seat and then helped Roland collapse the wheelchair for its journey in the boot. One more to pick up: Eduardo Rivera, the biggest denial that Kylie had ever entered into in her life.

* * *

Eduardo lived in a tiny apartment above his brother's garage. Carlos Rivera was seventeen years older than Eduardo. He was also a police officer, on a constant power trip (or so his brother thought), very overbearing and seemingly quite ashamed of his Hispanic heritage. All of these things combined meant that the two brothers did not get on well. Unsurprisingly they didn't much like living together, but when Eduardo had made the decision that he wanted to go to college (anything to avoid joining the police force) his mother had insisted that it would be stupid for him to try and rent somewhere when Carlos (or Carl, as he now preferred) lived minutes away from the campus.

Eduardo showered, dressed and ate in under twenty minutes. Knowing what would be waiting for him and his friends at the firehouse, he wondered again why he was still in this line of work. On debating this question, he usually came up with a lot of good reasons. For one thing he knew the job by now; it was certainly an easier way to earn money than trying something new. For another, a lot of the hours involved waiting for calls, which was always valuable do-nothing time. And of course, though Eduardo didn't like admitting it even to himself, the most advantageous part of being a Ghostbuster was that he got to see Kylie every day.

Stepping out onto the metal staircase that led down to the street below, Eduardo was immediately presented with another reason to stay in the business: it was another thing that really pissed his brother off. Carl was climbing the steps, obviously trying to look intimidating as he wore his police uniform and his best scowl. Eduardo would be lying if he tried to convince himself that he was not even a little intimidated by his brother. Carl was tall, muscled and loud. He looked particularly menacing when he was carrying his gun, which seemed to his brother to be most of the time. Eduardo now glanced fleetingly at the holster on Carl's belt.

The younger brother had never really been fond of guns, but he had grown to hate them vehemently ever since his father was shot dead shortly after Eduardo's eleventh birthday. He too had been a police officer, and was attending a bank robbery at the time. It was just so damn typical for a cop to die that way - and even though he hated himself for it, Eduardo couldn't help thinking that in some way they asked for it. Somebody should rule that the police no longer carry guns in the USA. If Alberto Rivera hadn't been brandishing a revolver that day, he almost certainly wouldn't have been shot.

"Where are you going?" Carl demanded sharply.

"To earn my rent," retorted his brother.

"You might as well quit today," barked Carl. "You won't be needed once those old guys have taken over again."

"Get out of my way," Eduardo intoned darkly, his brown eyes narrowing dangerously on his brother's face.

"Stay home," the older brother advised. "They don't need you. It's an even bigger waste of time now they're coming back, so you can damn well stop using that bullshit as an excuse to slack off and find something useful to do with yourself."

"I'm not going to become a cop," Eduardo said evenly, catching sight of Roland's car out of the corner of his eye. "I'm fine where I am."

"That'll soon change."

"Well then you'll have fun gloating, won't you. Excuse me." He said the words entirely without etiquette, attempting to barge past his enormous sibling and make his way down the stairs.

"Hey." Carl placed a massive hand forcefully on his brother's bony shoulder. "If Dad was here he'd soon knock some sense into you. Why can't you do as you're told for a change?"

"You have no right to tell me what to do," snapped Eduardo. "Let me go."

Carl made no move to step aside. Moving nimbly, however, Eduardo did manage to slip past him. He made his way quickly down the metal staircase, always wary of his brother's oversized fists. Carl had hit him before, never too severely, but he had come close once or twice. Eduardo resented the way his brother tried to be their father. Alberto Rivera had been a strict man with old-fashioned ideas on discipline. These seemed to have rubbed off on his older son, so now Eduardo could miss only the good things about his father while the bad things still threatened him virtually every day.

"You'll learn one of these days!" Carl bellowed after his brother. "You're gonna ruin your life, and I'm damned if I'm picking up the pieces when you do!"

The car waiting at the roadside inspired a daring bravado in Eduardo. He threw a scowl over his shoulder and shouted up to his brother, "F-ck you!"

"Jesus," murmured Garrett, as Eduardo climbed onto the seat next to him. "You'll have a frosty reception when you come home. What was that all about?"

"None of your business," Eduardo muttered bitterly, as the car started to move.

"We're late," observed Kylie, glancing at the clock on the dashboard. "They're gonna love that. We'll probably no sooner arrive than get struck off."

"They couldn't and wouldn't do that," Roland said soothingly. "Anyway you guys, haven't we already been through all this when they came back at Thanksgiving? And got over it," he added poignantly.

"Well yeah," Garrett's voice answered behind him. "But we didn't know then that they were back for good."

"You needn't worry." On some level Eduardo was still having this argument with his brother. "It'll nearly kill them. They're all old. They're dads, for cryin' out loud."

"You think?" Kylie asked dubiously. She suffered terribly from hero-worship and felt sure that anything she could do, Egon Spengler and Ray Stantz could do better.

* * *

It was slightly discouraging to find that the door to the firehouse was closed when they arrived. It was even more discouraging when Kylie went to open to door, only to find that something was blocking it. "Point proven, I think, guys!" she shouted to her three colleagues in the car. "They've barricaded us out!"

"Sorry!" a cheery voice called brightly, and a moment later the door opened to reveal Ray cradling a cardboard box in his arms. "Morning kids!"

"Hi!" called Roland, climbing out of the car when he saw that there was absolutely no way he could manoeuvre it round all of those boxes. "Welcome back!"

He pulled Garrett's wheelchair out of the back of the car while Eduardo made to follow Kylie into the firehouse lobby. They picked their way through the cardboard boxes, kicking some of them aside to clear a path for Garrett's chair. Peter and Winston both smiled a greeting; they were emptying a few of the boxes into metal lockers, for some reason supervised by Egon.

"It'll never all fit," Eduardo told them dryly.

"You really are a half-empty kinda guy, aren't ya," Peter smiled annoyingly at him.

"Sorry about all this stuff," Winston put in, just as Roland and Garrett entered the room. "We'll have it out of your way as soon as we can."

Abandoning any designs she may have had on using her own locker, Kylie wandered over to Janine at the reception desk. "They look pleased to be back," she remarked, sitting on the desk and looking at Janine over her shoulder. "Boys do love their toys, don't they. There's so much testosterone floating around here it's a wonder you and I don't start growing something."

"Feeling a little outnumbered?" Janine smiled sympathetically.

"Aww, he's adorable!" Roland suddenly exclaimed. Turning their heads towards him, Kylie and Janine saw that he was looking at a picture that Ray was taping to the inside of one of the metal lockers.

"Ah man." Eduardo headed quickly for the sanctuary of Janine's desk. "Anyone wanna go hurl before I do? They're pulling out the baby pictures."

"Baby pictures?" echoed Kylie, marching over to Ray's locker and barging Roland out of the way. "Yeah… cute," she remarked nonchalantly, looking blankly at the small snap of Eric Stantz. So this was what was preventing Ray from liasing with young female students of paranormal science.

Roland had moved on to admiring Winston's picture of Charlene, which left Garrett with Peter's snap of Oscar and Jessica. Kylie really wasn't interested in either of those. She skulked back to the reception desk, where Eduardo was still avoiding having to listen to all the adoring parent-talk.

"I've seen them," Janine was telling him. "Kinda makes a girl broody seeing pictures of her friend's children. Don't you think so, Kylie?"

"They're not my friends and nothing will ever make me feel broody, least of all pictures of other people's ugly brats," snapped Kylie.

"Looks like we finally agree on something," Eduardo smiled dryly. "I saw the way you looked at Ray's picture, Ky. It's not the kid's fault, you know."

"What isn't?" Kylie demanded irritably.

"That Ray's taken. Most old guys like that are - and if not there's usually something wrong with them. You'd do better to stick with somebody your own age."

Kylie just glared at him. There was no point in spitting out the obvious retort: "Like you, you mean?" It was clear to all of them that she, Eduardo and Janine were all thinking it.

Peter retrieved his picture from Garrett and took a moment to look at it wistfully, wondering if occasionally jetting off to New York and leaving his kids behind was actually quite a shitty thing to do. At least he hadn't left for good to join the London Philharmonic Orchestra, unlike some people he could mention. Evidently this was going to require some more thought - but not just yet. He'd been through enough angst for the time being.

Glancing across the room, Peter caught sight of the vehement eye contact being held steadily between Eduardo and Kylie. Smiling knowingly to himself, he nudged Egon in the ribs and murmured quietly, "That takes me back. You could cut the sexual tension with a knife, couldn't you?"

"Could you?" Egon asked blankly.

Winston joined in the conversation. "Sweet," he remarked. "What are they - eighteen? Still young enough not to agonise over it and take forever like you two guys did."

"Right." Peter nodded his agreement. "Let's hope for their sakes they just get on with it."

"You guys are getting way ahead of yourselves," Garrett cut in. "They're still at the hating-each-other, occasional-significant-look stage."

It was at this point that the phone started to ring. Peter, Ray and Garrett all charged to answer it - but Janine was close enough to get there first, shooting them all a hostile look as she put the receiver to her ear. Phones were most definitely her territory, thank you very much.

"Ok," she said, after a long silence while she scribbled frantically on a Post-it. "I'll send a team over right away."

"Here we go," Garrett smiled dryly, as Janine hung up. "Which team will that be, Janine?"

"Work it out between yourselves," shrugged Janine, pushing the Post-it across the desk. "I'm a secretary, not a referee."

"You take it," Kylie offered meekly, blinking pathetically up at where Egon towered over her. "You're the experts."

"WHAT?" screeched Eduardo. "Kylie, no way! Come on!"

"This is our gig now," cut in Garrett. "These guys are only just back and they haven't even unpacked their junk yet!"

"That's a good point, Garrett," Ray chimed in cheerily. "We're going to have to work this out at some point, but for the moment you kids might as well go. We've still got a whole bunch of stuff to unload."

"I've blocked the Ecto-1 in," Roland mumbled sheepishly, reaching into his jeans pocket for his car keys as he wandered outside.

"So have we," Winston pointed out, beginning to move some of the boxes that surrounded the converted hearse. "Won't be a minute, kids, if you wanna get kitted up."

The damn boxes seemed to be multiplying. Kylie and Eduardo had to wade through them to get to their lockers, so annoyed by them that they could think of nothing else - and consequently Garrett found himself having to clear his own path this time.

Retrieving Roland's jumpsuit for him, Kylie again caught sight of the picture of Eric Stantz in Ray's open locker. He was pretty cute, she supposed, and probably better company than a cat. Yikes! That wasn't getting broody, was it? She couldn't help wondering what sort of a baby she might have with Ray. Extremely clever and a bit odd-looking, she decided. She was desperate to get a look at Ray's wife and ascertain his type. _Just for closure,_ she tried to reason with herself. _I need to get over these silly crushes and move on. I don't want to hit her or anything… and even if I did want to I wouldn't._

"Thanks, Kylie." Roland grabbed the jumpsuit and started climbing into it. "Are we ready? What happened to Janine's Post-it?"

There was another long delay while everyone hunted for the Post-it, and Egon was led to doubt that this arrangement was going to work. It wasn't the first time a Post-it had gone missing, but somehow three extra people joining in the search seemed only to make it last longer. They were getting in each other's way, arguing about who had looked where and of course Peter didn't need to check under Janine's computer monitor again - Garrett wasn't blind!

"Finally," Peter muttered to Egon, when the team was on its way. "Are you sure they're up to it? A few cardboard boxes never bothered us that much as I recall."

* * *

Garrett sat in the back of the Ecto-1, staring at the Post-it that he held between forefinger and thumb. "A dog," he said again. "I mean - you know - maybe it _is_ just a dog. A really _big_ dog."

"Yeah, like a Hell Hound," retorted Kylie. "Did you happen to notice that Janine also wrote _'three heads'_ on there?"

"Perhaps it was _three_ really big dogs all standing next to each other," Garrett returned sulkily.

"Why are you so cynical all of a sudden?" asked Roland. "Until now we've practically had to restrain you every time we get a call."

"I don't know," shrugged Garrett. "It's just that the old team getting back together has caused so much sensation. It occurs to me that we might not be - well - expected."

"Which logically leads you to assume that this is a false alarm," Kylie shot sarcastically over her shoulder.

"No, not a false alarm," retorted Garrett. "Cry wolf - you know, to get the guys out in public. I'll bet you anything that when we get there we'll find no Hell Hound but a swarm of press photographers. And perhaps a few wannabe actors," he added thoughtfully. "Almost all of the papers made a big deal of Peter's Hollywood thing."

However if any of the people milling around outside Tower Records were press photographers, they were evidently too shell-shocked to whip out their cameras. Relief seemed to flood over the crowd when the Ecto-1 skidded to a spectacular halt and the four young Ghostbusters charged out of the car.

"I'm getting a reading!" Garrett exclaimed, pleasantly surprised.

"A pretty strong one too," observed Kylie. "Come on - let's get in there."

Any lingering doubts that Garrett might have had were soon alleviated. It was only too easy to locate this bothersome dog. As well as emitting an awful lot of psycho-kinetic energy and leaving a trail of chaos in its wake, it was producing bloodcurdling screams from those who, for whatever reason, had failed to respond immediately to the alarm bells ringing throughout Tower Records. The Ghostbusters soon found the creature squatting over an upturned display of _Indiana Jones_ DVD box sets. Kylie gasped when she saw it; Garrett sucked in his breath and Roland even joined in Eduardo's customary squeal.

The squatting dark-grey dog looked at least eight feet tall. Rising to its full height would have added another foot or two at least. It stood on four giant paws that were disproportionate to the rest of its body; they had to be big to support those extremely worrying long, sharp, well-worn claws. But these were barely noticeable with the distraction of the dog's three heads: three huge, snarling, drooling muzzles bearing foot-long smooth, white and dripping _fangs_.

On catching sight of the four motionless figures, the dog raised it hackles and all of its three heads started barking loudly. The Ghostbusters had to cover their ears, the sound was so deafening, whilst trying to shield themselves with their arms as globules of foamy drool flew threw the air and spattered on the ceiling, the floor, the walls… on _them_. It felt unpleasantly warm as it seeped through their clothes, and it smelt strongly of rancid meat.

The throaty barks didn't stop until Garrett could stand it no longer and risked exposing his ears to shoot a blast of proton fire at the terrifying animal. The dog yelped, and then howled with pain as the powerful beam hit its middle head right between the eyes. The whole building seemed to shake as the dog sharply turned a-hundred-and-eighty degrees, snarling viciously. Eduardo yelled again and Kylie - not a fan of anything limbless and wriggly - couldn't help but scream when they suddenly found themselves faced with five long and chunky, loudly hissing snakes all bearing their teeth and gums, swaying hypnotically back and forth apparently in midair.

"Those are its _tails_!" Roland squeaked, in horrific realisation.

Kylie remained frozen with terror for a moment longer than her three companions did. As she stood and stared, seeing nothing but five sets of smooth white fangs, she felt a strong hand on her shoulder - she couldn't tell whose - and she was dragged behind a rack of movie soundtracks. Roland and Eduardo had to duck to be out of sight and hoped that the dog would forget about them. It seemed to do so, apparently more interested in pulling apart one of the cash registers.

"Let's just blast it," Eduardo suggested helpfully, in a low voice (though probably not low enough to fool a dog with six overly large ears).

"It's too big," argued Roland. "Maybe we should call - "

"No!" Garrett interrupted, apparently finding this idea too appalling even to say out loud. "We can handle it. Come on - don't just stand there!"

Kylie was still shaking with fear, but she followed instantly when Garrett wheeled speedily out from behind the display rack and approached the dog. Roland came next, and finally Eduardo. Kylie grabbed the back of Garrett's chair, but he wrenched himself away from her and skidded to a halt beside the beast. It turned its closest head to look at him, yellow eyes narrowing as it growled softly, the turnout of foul-smelling drool from that one mouth rapidly increasing as it salivated hungrily. Apparently undaunted, Garrett sent another blast of proton fire straight at it.

Again the dog howled in pain. Roland, Eduardo and particularly Kylie, who was closest, could now see the effect that this had on the snakes. They hissed loudly, writhing more frantically. Then suddenly one lunged for Kylie, its teeth and jaws seeming to expand and grow as it opened its mouth. She was vaguely aware of a strangled cry behind her as she instinctively raised her left arm to shield herself. By some stroke of luck the snake's elongated fangs missed the flimsy coverings on her hand and arm and punctured her elbow pad. She could feel painful pressure on her elbow as the fangs sunk in dangerously close to her skin.

The pressure subsided, and then for the second time Kylie felt hands on her shoulders. Eduardo swung her round, surprising them all by putting himself between her and the snakes, and then he led her away. "Are you ok?" he asked urgently.

"I think so," Kylie panted breathlessly. "It didn't break the skin."

"Thank God," sighed Eduardo.

"I need to take a breather."

"I think we all should."

"WHAT?" Garrett yelled to them. "Guys, come on! All we need to do is fire at the same time!"

"Well perhaps if we had some warning!" Roland called pointedly to him.

It was at this moment that Kylie realised how utterly ridiculous this all was. Here they were at Tower Records trying to take out a creature that had _sixteen fangs_ - ten of them almost certainly loaded with venom and the other six quite definitely capable of penetrating bone and muscle. That thing could have three of their heads off in one fell swoop, and whoever was left would be the unlucky one if one of the snake-tails decided to finish the job with a quick injection. And, to top it all off, here they were _squabbling_!

Kylie shook Eduardo off her shoulders and made for the nearest exit, covering her ears as all three of the dog's heads began to bark savagely. She was aware of a throbbing pain in her left elbow, but she couldn't worry about that now. She knew that the bite hadn't got through to the skin. The force of the snake's jaws clamping together had almost crushed her arm, but the injury wasn't fatal and the bone wasn't even broken. She would just have to put up with it. She reached for her walkie-talkie and desperately called Egon's name.

"Kylie!" yelled Garrett. "What are you doing? AAH!" He had to jerk back quickly as a huge, slobbering head came down on him, jaws clamping hungrily together.

"Kylie? It's Janine," Kylie's walkie-talkie crackled. "Are you ok?"

"No!" wailed Kylie. "We need backup!"

"We don't!" shouted Garrett.

"Get Egon over here NOW!"

As she clipped the walkie-talkie back onto her belt, Kylie realised that she had asked only for Egon. She was so convinced that he could deal with anything; make any situation come right, but… _sixteen fangs_!

"Are you sure you're ok?" Roland asked calmly, drawing up beside her.

"It's just hurting me a little," shrugged Kylie, warding Roland off as he tried to peel away her elbow pad. "It's nothing."

"You shouldn't keep it strapped up like that," Roland insisted.

"I said it's nothing!" snapped Kylie.

It was all falling apart. Kylie, with the pain in her arm to discourage her, was really feeling it, and now so were the others as well. With much encouragement from Eduardo, Garrett realised that he would have to abandon this attempt on the monster and wait for help. Reluctantly they trailed out onto the street, all feeling much too drained to try and take this beast on alone even if any of them believed that they could. Kylie removed the padding and held her elbow in her right hand, swinging it experimentally. It wasn't so bad - probably just needed some air.

"What's going on?" a woman's voice demanded.

Garrett was the first to turn and see that this lady was accompanied by an entire TV news crew. "It's kind of a big one," he told them irritably. "We're waiting for backup."

"Will that be the original Ghostbusters?" the reporter asked eagerly.

"No," Garrett snapped sarcastically. "It'll be the Tooth Fairy."

Eduardo wasn't interested in the news crew. He was watching Kylie out of the corner of his eye as she nursed her wound, and thinking, _What if those guys weren't around? Would we have trapped that thing by now? With the other three as well as Egon hanging around Kylie suddenly thinks she's helpless._ He glanced at Roland. _And he's starting to believe it too._

It was a matter of minutes before Egon, Winston, Peter and Ray pulled up in a taxi and charged heroically towards Tower Records, every bit the life-saving cavalry. The news crew and several press photographers pounced on them immediately, but Peter managed to fend them off with a smoothly spoken, "Interviews afterwards, please, we have a monster to take care of."

"Come on," Ray smiled brightly at the younger Ghostbusters, as he passed them on his way into the building. "We'll need your help, guys."

Garrett went in first, followed by Roland. Kylie made to follow, but Eduardo grabbed her shoulder and asked, with genuine concern, "Are you going to be ok?"

"I want to help," Kylie told him simply.

"Doesn't that hurt?"

"Nah." She rolled her sleeve back down and quickly strapped the pad onto her elbow. "It really is nothing."

She wasn't lying. The arm hardly hurt at all now, and Kylie felt much more confident about facing the monster with Egon and Ray there. When she and Eduardo arrived on the scene the beast was already caught in six proton streams. Eduardo at once added his own, and Kylie wasted no time in positioning the trap.

The creature growled and snarled, hissed and struggled viciously as it was sucked, with excruciating slowness, into the trap. The eight Ghostbusters instinctively shut their eyes against the blinding light, their hearts pounding as they waited in desperation for the growling and hissing to stop. At last it did, and all that lay among the wreckage of CDs, DVDs and videos was a smoking ghost trap.

* * *

"Looked like Cerberus," remarked Ray, when they were all assembled in the Ecto-1.

"You know it?" Eduardo asked dryly, cocking an eyebrow. He was on the front seat between Roland and Kylie; the others had to squeeze into the back with Garrett.

"Only by reputation," shrugged Ray. "I didn't know it was real, but only because I'd never seen it. I guess now I know better."

"Cerberus is from Greek Mythology," Egon added helpfully. "He is the guardian of Haydes - the Greek equivalent of Hell."

"Wonder how he got here," mused Ray. "He must have been scared, being so far from home. I'll bet that's why he lashed out at you kids like that."

Garrett, Kylie, Roland and Eduardo all opened their mouths to retort, but even if they could think of anything to say there seemed little point. Let Ray draw his own conclusions from that little episode. The monster was trapped. It didn't matter now.

"How come we found that so hard and then you guys came along and trapped it in ten seconds flat?" Kylie asked quietly.

"We had help," Winston told her kindly. "We couldn't have done it without you, just like you couldn't do it without us."

Kylie wasn't so sure, but she didn't say anything else. As for Garrett, he was seething with indignation. He had been uncharacteristically silent during the trip back to the firehouse. It really stung that the press hadn't shown any interest in the new team when the Ghostbusters emerged triumphant from Tower Records, and that was only a small part of what was making him angry. Just why couldn't they do that on their own? Even if they were good at this before they certainly seemed to have lost something since the old team came back.

The atmosphere in the car was tense. It had started at Tower Records, maybe sooner, but only twenty minutes or so ago had it started spreading over them like a rash. Now all four of the young Ghostbusters were feeling it: the sense that something they prized was rapidly slipping away from them.

* * *

To Be Continued

* * *

#3321-122204w  
039


	2. Chapter 2

**Extreme Ghostbusters: Dreams Reborn, Part Two**

By EGB Fan, Ben King, and Fritz Baugh  
GBI Case File GBNY-1997-15/321

* * *

**December, 1997  
Ghostbusters Omnibus Timeline Year Fifteen **

* * *

Janine held Egon's arm as they left the Chateau Ritz. "I hope that that was an acceptable meal?" he asked as the valet retrieved her car.

"You know it was." she answered. "Especially since there weren't any obnoxious gremlins interrupting this time..."

Egon smirked, and made a noise dangerously close to a chuckle. "I admit it was quite interesting the look on the manager's face when I produced those six year-old free meal coupons we never had the opportunity to use."

The valet arrived with the familiar yellow Volkswagen. He started to hand the key to Janine, but Egon gently intercepted it. "Would it be all right if I drive?"

Janine had to think about it for a moment...there was a strange gleam in his eye as he asked. _He's up to something...hm..._ "Drive on, Professor" Her trust in him was unconditional.

As the car drove away from the restaurant, things were quiet. Janine took the opportunity to look out the window--it had started to lightly snow, and she was enjoying the opportunity to just _watch_...she normally was either making the trip in the underground subway, or of course had to keep her eyes on the road.

She realized with a start they were in Brooklyn, but not travelling toward her apartment. "This sure ain't the way back to the firehouse...Where are we going?"

"Perhaps not anywhere in particular...perhaps I'm just taking a scenic route..." he said cryptically.

"I know you too well to believe _that_..."

He smirked. "You are correct. I'm going to a particular destination--but I'm not telling you where. You will have to trust me."

She smirked back. "Always."

The car finally came to a stop at a section of the Jamaica Bay harbor. It was currently uninhabited, and had clearly seen better days. They walked to the railing, snow lightly crunching beneath their feet, and looked out over the Bay.

"Cold?" he asked.

"Not enough to worry about..."

"I came out here a time or two over the...intervening years. Sometimes I deluded myself into thinking it somehow made me closer to you. Other times I deluded myself into thinking it helped me let you go..."

She looked around..."Why here?"

He said nothing.

She looked around again...and it dawned on her that she _had_ been here before...

_"Just say it, Janine...you want to be just like me..." it said in a silken voice. _who you areShe closed her eyes and nodded. "I understand...sorry, it took me a minute. It was a little better cared for and had less snow back in 1990"

"Just...like..." she started to respond, robotically...

Then a new voice broke in, a familiar basso "Janine! Get away from that thing!!"

She turned to face him. "Egon?"

"You have to listen to me!"

"No!!" she howled, a wind rising at the bidding of the power the Fairy Godmother had given her. "Don't you get it, you Asshole!? This is all your fault!!"

"Janine..."

"I did it all so I'd be prettier...so you'd notice me...AND YOU NEVER DID!!" And she whacked him with another telekinetic blast

"Is this better?" she snarled, adopting the form of an Egyptian princess "Or this?" becoming an Elizabethan lady. She flew into the air, morphing into a redheaded caricature of Marilyn Monroe. "You're all alike!!"

Egon was trying to painfully pick himself up.

"Ever since I was a little girl, they made fun of me...said I wasn't good enough for them...I fed them their teeth, but they still said it...no more! I WANT TO BE PERFECT!!"

"You are perfect, Janine." it said. "Now there's only one thing left to do--destroy him! Destroy him and the hold he has on you, and then you will be perfect!"

Janine spread her hands, an angry red ball of force forming there.

Egon's heart was beating through his ribcage. His mind was failing him...no logical solution came to him...no logical solution...

He unstrapped his proton pack and let it drop to the ground.

"That's what I'm trying to tell you...I'm here because I'm worried about you...because I care...not because of what you look like, but because of

"Give it up..." the creature gloated. "You've lost"

No logical solution.

"If you want to destroy me, Janine...I can't stop you. But before you do, I have to tell you this..." and he looked right into her eyes. "I love you..."

The creature's expression fell. No logical solution would have saved her. But one illogical truth...that the lotsabucks thought the man would never would have uttered...

"E...Egon?" Janine asked, sounding like she was coming out of a deep sleep...

"Indeed" he agreed.

"I remembered it in the middle of 1995..." she went on quietly. "It was one of the last things I remembered...it all came flooding back. The lotsabucks. What you said. The Chateau Ritz and the imps. And that night in June the Zodiac Lords ruined. I remembered _us_ for the first time...it was right after that I moved out..."

"One more thing I did to you..." Egon shook his head.

"Egon, I wish you would quit blaming yourself for all of my mistakes." she replied. "I don't...I never did. What I said here that night was...well, I was angry and the damned bitch was still in my head..."

He stiffened. "Janine...don't you understand? It was all part of the same pattern. The way we kept torturing ourselves and each other over the years. You'd pour your heart into trying to get me to open up to you. I'd sit there like a piece of ice pretending I didn't notice. Then you'd do something rash, to either get at me or in a well-meaning attempt to get on with your life. I'd seethe and explode jealously, but you couldn't understand why. You'd have second thoughts and undo your rash effort. And I'd retreat back into logic. And the cycle repeated itself..."

She exhaled deeply, a long stream of frozen breath trailing from her mouth. "That's us...Mister Dysfunctional and Miss Codependant...it's a vicious cycle, Egon, I admit that. I've left behind the wreckage of at least one relationship that might have worked if I'd never met you. But here's the thing Egon--I _did_ meet you. We can't pretend none of it ever happened...just like I can't pretend I don't love you. I learned that the hard way."

"I'm not asking you to..." he answered. His right hand reached into his pocket, and he pulled out a small object; a coin. "Do you recognize this?"

Her eyes went wide.

_"I want you to have this...it's my lucky coin. I got it at the 1964 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows" _

"I don't believe in luck"

"Keep it anyway...I've got another one at home just like it"

"You still have that?" she asked, honestly shocked.

"For some reason I could never part with it, even in the depths of my depressions over the last six years. Because..." he looked uncomfortable admitted it. "I somehow had this odd feeling...that if I disposed of it, you'd never come back to me."

"Oh Egon..." she replied, almost speechless.

"That's what you've done to me, Janine. You've taken a man who was once ruled almost totally by the logical and rational, and turned him into someone who'd find supernatural power in an inert piece of metal."

He put the coin back in his pocket. "I had to bring you to this place...that has so much meaning. Connected to an event that embodied everything that was right and what was wrong about our relationship. Because seeing you again...working with you again...and having the others come back...I had a lot of time over the last six years to think about things, and I just don't want to go back to that old status quo."

Her eyes narrowed. She wasn't totally sure she liked what he was getting at. "Meaning?"

"Meaning...Janine, we're not in the middle of a crisis. No supernatural being is influencing either one of us right now. And we're not angry at each other over anything. We have the luxury of looking at this rationally. We make a mutual decision to break that cycle of codependency and dysfunction. Logically? We acknowledge the past. Acknowledge our friendship. Even acknowledge the feeling between us." He turned away from her. "But also acknowledge that 'us' is an illogical outcome. Part as friends, and never come this way again."

She suddenly felt her legs go rubbery, and her stomach ready to return the nice dinner she'd just had. _I don't believe this...after all I've done he's brushing me off AGAIN?!_

"Or..."

" 'Or' what?" she could barely choke out the words, anger and sorrow starting to rise up within her.

He turned back to her, taking her hands, his face no longer solemn. He had handed her something, a small box...

"Or you marry me."

She was struck speechless, the rising anger short circuited by the words he had said and the look on his face--unguarded, open, almost pleading. Her hands were starting to tremble as she opened the box, revealing a golden ring with a sparkling diamond. "Egon, I...I..."

"I'm tired of being logical when it comes to you, Janine. I want to be _human_...no more denials. No more confusion. I love you, and want to spend the rest of our time together proving that."

She just stood there, tears streaming from her eyes. It was a moment she just wanted to freeze in amber, to live again and again...she'd spent the better part of fifteen years imagining this...

Egon inhaled. "If...if you say no, I would completely understand. A lot has happened to both of us...I won't deny I would be devestated, but I'd understand."

She smiled at him as she pulled off her left glove, and placed the sparkling ring on her finger. "Egon Spengler, as if there was a snowball's chance in Hell I would say no to you..." She kissed him. "Yes. A thousand times yes."

Someone who didn't know him so well might have been shocked by the uncharacteristic whoop of joy he emitted...might have been unnerved by the expression of sheer honest glee on his face..even Janine was a little surprised by being spun around in a fit of spontaneous affection.

"I shall endeavor with all my being...to make sure you do not regret this decision." was the last thing said for a while. After that, the newly betrothed simply stood there and held each other as the snow continued to fall.

* * *

**Ghostbusters Central  
The Next Morning **

* * *

Holding out a brand new pristine jumpsuit with a fixed grin on his face, Ray was reminded of the time he got it into his head to quit the Ghostbusters and spent a brief period selling shoes instead. Of course now he didn't have the bunny costume to help him make the sale, which was probably a good thing - it almost certainly wouldn't make any difference to this client's decision anyway.

"I don't wear uniform," Eduardo said again, for about the sixth time, his gaze, voice and posture quite unwavering.

Across the room, Peter smirked quietly to himself. Eduardo's behaviour reminded him a great deal of the "No thanks" technique he had so recently recommended to Oscar if one day he should be offered drugs, cigarettes or alcohol he didn't want. _Just keep saying "No thanks" and eventually they'll back off._

Roland and Garrett were in the room with them, holding the proposed new uniforms bunched up in their arms in a strange kind of attempt to bond with them and thus come around to the idea. At the moment they weren't keen. Granted they were less reluctant than Eduardo, but not keen. Kylie, on the other hand, liked to credit herself with a little more maturity than that. She had agreed to try on the jumpsuit she had been presented with, knowing that it would be more practical in this weather anyway.

"It's very comfortable," Ray persisted. "At least try it on."

"I don't wear uniform."

"It's got your name on it and everything."

"How come they only have our surnames on?" asked Roland. "This isn't the army - don't we want to provide a friendly service?"

"Egon was sure you'd be on our side," Peter smiled dryly at him. Then looking at Eduardo he said, "I expected this from _you_, though. _Why_ don't you wear uniform?"

"I disapprove of the whole concept of uniform," Eduardo returned tartly. "People who wear it think they're better than everyone else." _Carlos Rivera._ "And it creates enmity. There'd be no wars without uniforms."

"That's probably true," Ray had to agree. "But… well… this is how we did it in the old days."

"It ain't the old days no more," retorted Eduardo. "And this is not how _we_ do it."

"Oh for goodness' sake!" It was Kylie's voice, wafting in exasperated tones down from the floor above. "You have _got_ to be kidding me!"

"Problem, Ky?" called out Garrett.

"Huh," muttered Kylie, as she made her way slowly down the spiral staircase. "I think a _man_ designed _this_."

The jumpsuit she was wearing was just a little too tight, straining slightly at the bust so as to demonstrate quite accurately the shape of her breasts, the red embroidered "GRIFFIN" drawing the eye straight to them. There wasn't much space to move around in the hip department either. Peter cut a quick glance at Eduardo, curious to see his reaction. It was pretty much what one might expect: mouth slightly open and eyes practically popping out on stalks.

Kylie didn't seem to notice this as she went on indignantly, "I mean I'm not exactly what you might call big, am I - you'd think I could be allowed a little more room in here. Well I'm sorry but I'm not putting myself on display like this. If you want sex appeal get one of _them_ to do it," and she gestured towards her three male teammates.

"I think you look good," ventured Garrett. (Eduardo was obviously thinking the same thing, but he didn't dare say so.)

"I'm a Ghostbuster, not a model," snapped Kylie. "It doesn't matter how I look."

"Ah well, too bad," shrugged Peter. "I guess this means you won't consider the bikini we've got lined up for the summer."

"Stop imagining it and put your tongue away," Garrett murmured to Eduardo.

"Is that supposed to be funny?" demanded Kylie, looking sharply at Peter.

"Well I wasn't being serious," he replied cautiously.

"You're not in LA now, you know," Kylie ranted on. "I think you'll find that most of the women around here have some self-respect. If someone wants to know my name I'll tell them myself rather than let them ogle my breasts. And until the guys answer a call topless I won't even consider wearing this thing."

Apparently satisfied that her point had been made, Kylie turned on her heel and headed once again for the spiral staircase. There followed an awkward silence, which Garrett soon broke with, "Well I'm not going _anywhere_ topless in this weather."

"Janine never took it this badly," remarked Peter. "At least she doesn't seem to have carried out any of those threats to sue me for sexual harassment."

"It's because Kylie doesn't have a sense of humour," explained Eduardo. "Besides which she doesn't like being objectified, which I don't think is unreasonable." He was surprised to discover that he shared Kylie's indignation. It must be because he loved her now - and he certainly didn't like the thought of her being ogled.

"It's only a jumpsuit," reasoned Peter, in defensive tones.

Garrett chuckled inwardly and turned back to the TV. He'd pretty much worn the standard uniform anyway, so this really didn't matter to him much--but it was fun to watch Kylie get mad when it wasn't at him.

_"Well Tom, we're here at Rockerfeller Plaza and in witness to an unusual art installation...as of yet the artist is unknown but the art appears quite flawless..."_ the TV was blaring on

_"Diane, how many sculptures are we talking about here?" _The voice of arts corresponded Diane Moore cut off as the camera stopped moving.

"There must be between twenty and thirty statues in..."

_"Well, it would appear that Diane's team is experiencing some technical diffulties, we'll try return to her story in a few minutes..."_ Reported NY1 News Anchor Tom Ferral.

Moments later Kylie reappeared, now wearing black jeans and a sweater, and announced, "I'm going to college."

"I'll give you a lift," offered Roland, making to follow her down to the garage. "I have a class anyway."

"I'll go too," Garrett decided.

"Well if everyone's going then so will I," said Eduardo. "No need to ask if you guys'll be ok without us."

"Huh?" Ray asked, just a little confused. But he was saved from having to continue the conversation any further when Egon opened the firehouse door from outside and walked in. He held the door for Janine.

Ray smirked. He, Winston, and Peter hadn't said a word to him or each other when he called the night before simply saying they shouldn't expect him to return that night unless there was a "major supernatural catastrophe. Of the most apocalyptic proportion."

"Why, I thought you were taking the day off, Janine." Ray said brightly, noting Egon's somewhat rumpled clothing. _At least, unlike six years ago, there _wasn't_ a "major supernatural catastrophe" to interrupt them..._

Egon adjusted his collar. "Well, there was a slight change in plans..."

Venkman slapped Egon on the back, his Cheshire grin quite obvious. "Well, I see that you followed your curfew, and passed it with seven hours to spare, too. I'm very proud of you, Professor Spengler. Here." He handed Egon a Milky Way bar. "You probably need the energy, too..."

"Actually, I feel quite invigorated. And I've had breakfast already." Which didn't stop him from starting to eat the candy.

Venkman smirked and pretended to cuff him. "Redzilla's over at her desk on her day off humming and sashaying like a cat that had eaten an entire aviary. If that doesn't say 'afterglow' I don't know what does..."

"You're up early." Egon deflected.

"Slimer monkeyed with my alarm clock again." Venkman responded. "Don't change the subject, Professor Love..."

The four younger Ghostbusters and Winston came down the stairs. "Well, about time you made it, Egon..." Winston said breezily, with a wink.

" 'Made it'?" Kylie noted.

"I'm glad everyone's here." Egon said, with a mischievous edge coming into his voice that the younger foursome couldn't remember hearing before. And their elders certainly hadn't heard often.

"You're looking quite chipper this morning, Professor." Roland said. "When I didn't see you I assumed you were already in the lab..."

Venkman snickered audibly. "Different kinds of experiments, Kid..."

Kylie froze. There was a thought starting to form in her brain...one she didn't like a whole lot..._The Professor and Janine had dinner last night...and what if the reason she hadn't seen him this morning was because...he hadn't come home?!_

Janine sashayed up to Egon and kissed his cheek. "Anybody notice anything different?" she said, conspicuously playing with his collar with her left hand.

"You're in a good mood? Egon's posture has slouched without the broom up his...whoa..." Venkman's eyes went wide.

"I think he just noticed." Egon deadpanned.

"Nice rock..." Winston whistled.

"Professor..." Roland began. "Does this mean..."

Egon Spengler's face contorted into the uncharacteristic wide grin. "If you are assuming that I have asked Janine to marry me and that she accepted, then your are correct."

Three men over or nearing fourty whooped and high-fived each other before taking their two old friends in a bear hug.

"I take it this meets your approval?" Egon asked.

" "Approval'?" Venkman retorted. "Other than the fact that this should've happened like ten years ago...it's about f--ing time, Spengs."

"Set a date yet?" Ray asked.

"We're looking at June..." Janine basked. "That's always been a big month for the Ghostbusters..."

Egon chuckled and cleaned his glasses. "Actually...we haven't told anyone else yet. Not even our parents. We both agreed that it would be only...proper..."

"If we told you guys first. Seeing as how you only pulled for us when even we weren't" Janine finished

"I told you before, that finishing each other's sentence thing is creepy." Venkman said with cheerful sarcasm.

"Quite a list to call..." Winston remarked, going over to the phone. "Fritz and Denise, and Kathryn at the top of the list. Uncle Cyrus and Aunt Bella and Doris and Ellis and...man, just how many relatives does Janine have, anyway?"

"Be careful, Winston. They shall be my relatives very soon." Egon noted.

"And I gotta call Aunt Lois!! I mean, good grief, Egon, you're practically my brother which mean she's your aunt too, and..."

"And I gotta start planning the bachelor party!" Venkman said with too much excitement. "So many really good strippers I know..."

"Why do you think we haven't told him the exact date?" Janine rolled her eyes.

Eduardo, Garrett, and Roland all looked at each other, dumbstruck. Kylie went over to Egon in a daze. "Professor...congrats, y'know? You and the future Mrs. Spengler."

"Um...thank you, Kylie." Egon smiled.

"If...you'll excuse me..." Kylie said just a bit too quickly, and headed for the stairs. "I forgot to use the little girl's room..."

"Wow...just wait until our wives hear about this--they're just gonna freak!!" Ray beamed excitedly.

"Especially Kaila..." Winston nodded. "You remember when we found out they worked together right before Janine got hired on here?"

None of the rest of them noticed the cloud cross Venkman's face. As the one who'd lobbied for this harder than any of them, he should've been soaking it in. But as a trained psychologist--and father of two--he saw a need for his presence elsewhere. He quietly headed upstairs before anyone else noticed.

* * *

Kylie escaped to the kitchen and collapsed against the sink, her knuckles blanching as she gripped the edge tightly. She never would have expected a reaction like this. It was all but inevitable that this would happen - she knew that - and yet her heart was pounding and her legs felt weak. Married. Egon was getting married. For a moment there she almost forgot whom he was getting married _to_. It didn't matter; it only mattered that he was going to belong to _somebody_… to Janine. Kylie's friend. Of course that mattered. She was happy for them, or at least she would be once she was over the shock to her system. She'd always known that she couldn't have him, but now it was official.

"Hey."

Kylie turned round sharply at the unexpected intrusion. The celebrations were still going on loudly in the next room - she didn't even think she would be missed. But here was Peter, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed defensively, looking at her as though he'd just scraped her off the bottom of his shoe.

"What's the matter with you?" he asked suspiciously.

"Oh don't worry," Kylie fairly spat. "They're quite safe. Even if Janine had a bunny I wouldn't want to boil it."

"Sorry." Peter's expression softened, but he didn't relax his posture. "It's just that I've seen those two go through all kinds of hell. They've been hindered enough without somebody else sticking their oar in."

"Somebody _else_?" questioned Kylie.

"Come on Kylie, you know the history, at least from what you've seen in the movies."

"You don't mean Louis Tully."

"I _do_ mean Louis Tully," Peter confirmed, his expression darkening.

"Ha," Kylie snorted derisively. "None of what happened was his fault. Relationships don't break from the outside."

"You weren't even there."

"Not the first time, no. But I _did_ witness the whole bug saga. If Egon wanted me he could have had me - but he chose Janine, which I know is how it should be so you don't need to tell me. She has a ring on her finger now. I think they're safe."

"I suppose you're right," Peter relented. "But I still don't think Tully's blameless."

"Well what could he do?" reasoned Kylie. "Beg Janine to leave him and go back to Egon?"

"Well yeah," shrugged Peter.

"Egon didn't have to lose her in the first place," argued Kylie. "I suppose a little guy in specs makes an easy scapegoat. But that's not important now, is it, because they've moved on. Egon and Janine are getting married," she finished, the lump in her throat suddenly choking her on the last word.

"You're eighteen," Peter said soothingly. "There's plenty of time."

"Oh I know," Kylie nodded vigorously. "But it doesn't matter anyway. I'm fine on my own. I just had a crush on my teacher, that's all. He's old enough to be my father, for crying out loud! I know it was stupid. But I guess we all get lonely sometimes."

"Of course," Peter said slowly, starting to panic. She looked like she was about to burst into tears.

"I lost somebody close just over a year ago," Kylie went on. "It was Egon's book that got me through it. It was all very reassuring - and I was lonely without her - and I'm a sucker for a bit of genius at the best of times. But that's all it was: hero-worship. I'm not going to try and steal him away from her or anything."

"Are you ok?" Peter asked warily.

"There's just a lot of changes going on around here," Kylie shrugged dismissively. "It's hard to tell where we fit in anymore."

"You guys are doing a really good job - better than the rest of us even, without commitments in various other parts of the country. And Egon and Janine marrying won't really change anything around here. And - uh - sorry if I implied you were a bunny boiler."

"Forget it."

Peter backed slowly out of the room, leaving Kylie alone with her pain. She'd lost someone close just over a year ago… been jolted out of a crush into the harsh reality of loneliness about five minutes ago… why had she been having that conversation with _him? Where_, thought Peter, _has that Latino kid gotten to?_

Eduardo was offering his congratulations to Janine. Peter caught some of their conversation as he approached: "Won't you be… you know… bored?"

"Bored?" Janine raised her eyebrows, looking unsure whether to be annoyed or amused. "It's always the quiet ones, Eduardo."

Slimer started hovering affectionately around Peter, crooning insistently in his ears no matter how vigorously he was batted away. Peter gave the ghost a hard shove with his elbow as he approached Eduardo and Janine. He then grabbed the former by the shoulder and dragged him across the room, saying slowly and deliberately, "It took me the best part of ten years to propose to my wife and my son isn't even mine. I wasted a lot of time being miserable, same as Egon."

"Yeah, I know," Eduardo said blankly. "So what?"

"So get in there and avoid making the same mistakes that we did."

One quick shove and Eduardo found that he was standing in the kitchen. Peter seemed to vanish, his voice just audible among the chatter wafting in from the next room as though he had been there all the time. The smiling conversation and Slimer's whoops of delight signified the carefree atmosphere less than a foot away, and yet it didn't seem to penetrate the open doorway to the kitchen.

Immediately Eduardo caught sight of Kylie. She was rinsing out a glass at the sink, her thumb squeaking against the smooth surface as she attacked a blue-black lipstick mark with a dribble of green soapy liquid. She had her back to the door, but it was easy to sense an air of sadness about her. She looked so small and vulnerable, her clothes hanging shabbily off her gaunt frame. Instinct told Eduardo to go and put his arms around her. All he wanted to do was hold her close: at that moment he didn't want to touch her sexually or look anywhere but into her eyes. A jolt of electricity shot through his entire body as he realised for the first time that he loved her.

When Kylie turned round suddenly, Eduardo was taken by guilty surprise. There they were: the big, dark-green eyes he wanted to gaze into while he told her what he had just realised. A tight pain suddenly tugged on his heart and spread through his torso as he told himself that, even if he could find the courage to confess and say those infamous three words, she definitely would not say it back.

"What are you doing in here?" Kylie asked guardedly.

"Just needed to get away from the smug happy couple," shrugged Eduardo. "They're enough to make you want to throw up. What about you?"

"What _about_ me?"

"What are you doing in here?"

Kylie watched his throat moving steadily as he talked, the quirky dark-brown goatee bobbing in and out of her line of vision. Damn - it was happening again. She felt very alone and so had started wondering what it would be like to let him touch her… run her fingers through his hair… feel his goatee brushing against her skin as he kissed her.

She mentally shook herself out of it. Kylie knew that she was only having these ridiculous, _insane_ thoughts about him because she was no longer allowed to wonder about how she and Egon would be together. This was a different kind of fantasy, though. When she used to imagine herself alone with Egon they would talk earnestly, not touching at all. Thinking about Eduardo now, slowly moving her eyes up to meet his, she felt a strange tingling sensation behind her navel.

"I was just thinking," she told him truthfully, ignoring the unwelcome physical reaction to his presence. "It's about nineteen-eighty-nine."

"No it isn't," argued Eduardo, understandably confused.

"No, but it should be," explained Kylie. "The original Ghostbusters are all together. Egon and Janine are engaged and the others are married with kids. This all should have happened long ago - and we shouldn't be here." She leaned sideways to look past Eduardo into the next room and went on, "I wouldn't be surprised if Roland and Garrett are having this conversation right now. I don't feel like I belong here at all."

"Those guys have got wives, kids and grey hair," reasoned Eduardo. "We'll be needed if there's a call."

"Does having a family really stop you doing your job?" Kylie wondered out loud.

"It doesn't stop you, no," answered Eduardo. "But nothing's more important than the people you love. Venkman would get on the first plane back to LA if he thought his family needed him. They can still do it, Ky, but they can't give it their all anymore."

Peter was too polite to listen to their conversation, but he could see that Eduardo was still standing in the doorway. That was wrong for a start. They should be in each other's arms by now. The atmosphere in that room must be excruciating. _With a knife_, Peter thought knowingly to himself. _And if Torgo isn't careful he's gonna lose that girl to a stuck-up violinist or a nerdy little accountant._

He wandered over to Garrett and Roland and asked, "Isn't there _anything_ I can do to chivvy them along?"

"Relax, they'll get there," Garrett replied breezily, realising at once what Peter was talking about. "What's the rush anyway?"

"If it's meant to be it's meant to be," Roland added sagely. "But I still think they're an odd match."

"Opposites attract," shrugged Peter, expertly ducking a sudden bout of affection from Slimer. "I just wish they'd hurry up. It's so annoying - you just want to yell at them, 'Kiss, you morons!'" He paused and then said, with an apologetic smile, "I'm sorry guys, it's just _déja vu_ getting me down. Egon and Janine pissed me off with this kind of stuff for about ten years."

"Just a few weeks for us," Garrett told him matter-of-factly, "before the bug guy. But remember we had Ky and Eddie doing it at the same time."

"Wow," remarked Peter. "This place must have been charged up higher than a jet engine."

"Yeah," agreed Garrett. "Pretty much."

* * *

**The Next Day **

* * *

The phone began to ring and Janine, who was sat at her desk at the instant it began to ring, picked up it's receiver.

"Ghostbusters..." She greeted, but then flinched as someone on the other end of the line began to scream frantically. "Okay...okay...please stay calm madame...we'll send someone right away." Janine replied as she balanced the phone on one shoulder and began to scribble down an address on a work order. "They should be there within 30 minutes or less." She explained and hung up, then activating the alarm which drew the only Ghostbusters who had been in the building, the originals.

"This a call?" Winston asked, despite knowing what the bell was for.

"Aren't the kids around?" Peter asked, glancing around the garage in case they were lurking in the shadows.

"They should be at college studying for their exams." Egon explained as he wiped his glasses on a piece of cloth. "Which means we'll have to take their place on this call."

"Great, I've been getting the inkling to do some more ass kicking...in a ghostly sense, of course." Peter smirked as they walked over to their lockers to retrieve their uniforms.

* * *

The four Ghostbusters stood in full unform outside of a small apartment in Little Italy, three of them looking up at the four story building, the fourth was studying his PKE Meter with a definate frown on his face.

"Odd." Egon commented.

"Something wrong big guy?" Peter asked, peering over the physicist's shoulder to see if anything obvious was being displayed on the meter's screen.

"Nothing I can pinpoint...but there's an odd signal here..." Egon explained with excrutiating vagarity.

"Well, looks like whatever it is scared most people indoors," Winston commented. "This place looks like a ghost town." For the first time, Peter, Ray and Egon looked around their surroundings, not only was the place deserted, but eerily quiet.

"We'd better head inside." Ray replied as he checked his watch, they then entered the apartment building, taking the elevator to the third floor apartment which was the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ackland. The Ghostbusters stepped off of the elevator and walked along until they reached the apartment they'd been told to go to. Egon knocked on the door and waited.

"What sort of spook could we be dealing with?" Winston asked.

"From the notes Janine wrote on the dispatch notice, Mrs. Ackland was 'Crying that her husband wasn't talking and that he felt dead', apparantly Mr. Ackland saw something, and that now Mrs. Ackland cannot get any sign of life from him." Egon replied as he studied the note, he frowned and knocked again. "Mrs. Ackland? It's the Ghostbusters! We're here in relation to the incident with your husband...hello?" Egon shouted through the door, knocking again.

"Maybe she went out?" Peter supposed.

"Doubtful." Ray replied.

"Yeah...I know...a person in a severe case of emotional fragility caused by a loved one being hurt will almost never leave that loved one's side until help has arrived...okay...you think we should break the door down?" Peter asked.

"Let's try to avoid any overly brutal force." Egon replied. "For now let's check the surrounding area."

* * *

Once Egon had taken the first step into the alleyway his PKE Meter began to beep loudly.

"I'm getting that strange signal again...I wonder if it's not unfair to connect it with what could have happened to Mrs. Ackland's husband." Egon pondered.

"Well...without seeing him, it's a bit of a vague theory..." Ray replied.

"Agreed." Egon replied. They walked along the alleyway for a bit before Peter wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"Yuck...I thought Tuesday was supposed to be garbage day, it's nearly noon." Peter muttered.

"Maybe the garbage guys go spooked by the...well...the whatever." Ray suggested.

"Sounds like it to me." Winston replied, shortly before being catapalted into a brick wall when Peter slammed into his shoulder. After gaining his footing and making sure neither of them were harmed, he narrowed his eyes at Peter. "Just what the hell are you playing at Peter?!"

"Sorry, boot laces came undone." Peter replied sheepishly.

"Ugh..." Winston muttered, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "For the sake of our lives Peter...could you try to double tie your shoe laces? At least you could tuck in your jumpsuit pants..."

"Look. you guys run on ahead...I won't be that long..." Peter replied, he knelt down and began to tie up his shoe laces, vaguely aware that the other three Ghostbusters had moved on around a corner. "Never heard of a killer shoelace." Peter muttered, he then stood up and began to walk in the direction that he'd been vaguely aware that his friends had vanished in, wrinkling his nose as he walked. "Guys, I hope we can tie this up quickly, this place smells like three week old Gorgonzola." Peter replied, he frowned when he didn't receive a reply. "Guys?" He asked, turning the corner...what he saw made him stop dead in his tracks.

* * *

To Be Continued

* * *

#3321-122204w  
040


	3. Chapter 3

**Extreme Ghostbusters: Dreams Reborn, Part Three**

By EGB Fan, Ben King, and Fritz Baugh  
GBI Case File GBNY-1997-15/321

* * *

**New York City Community College  
December, 1997  
Ghostbusters Omnibus Timeline Year Fifteen**

* * *

Roland scribbled a note in his diary to remind himself of the American Literature assignment he had just been set, and then joined the throng of students filing out of the lecture hall. He glanced at his watch; it was a few minutes past eleven o'clock. He needed to check a book out of the library and then get a few assignments finished before three o'clock, when he had promised to pick up Ryan, Casey and Amy from school. He had four hours, or rather a few minutes less, but there was plenty of time. He could do all of his work in the study hall without the constant possibility of being called out on an emergency. Student life was a lot easier, he reflected, when you could use your time exactly as you liked. Perhaps the return of the original Ghostbusters was a blessing in disguise.

As Roland was leaving the library with an anthology of notes on _Of Mice and Men_ tucked under one arm, he caught sight of Kylie silently perusing a book in a secluded corner. He thought she looked rather down, and was worried. Surely she couldn't be that upset about a recent crush becoming engaged. Perhaps she was still feeling superfluous now that the original Ghostbusters were back on the scene - or maybe it was a personal problem. Roland knew that Kylie had a few of those, and he wished that she would at least talk to him about them, especially after she had confided to him about the disappearance of her friend Jack during the Grundle incident.

"Hey," Roland smiled pleasantly, helping himself to the seat next to Kylie's. "What's up?"

"I'm researching a paper on the history of three-dimensional art," Kylie returned listlessly, not looking up from her book.

"Oh… Are you ok?" asked Roland.

"Shouldn't I be?" countered Kylie.

"Well you've seemed kind of low lately," Roland admitted.

At these words Kylie looked up from her book. She fixed her eyes on Roland, pushing back a stray lock of untidy dark hair as she regarded him carefully, apparently deep in thought. Then at last she told him, her tone calm and unruffled, "I'm thinking about quitting."

Roland was absolutely shocked. "You're not!" he exclaimed.

Kylie nodded mutely.

"Right." Roland stood up purposefully, grabbed Kylie's wrist and pulled her to her feet. "Come with me."

Ten minutes later they were in the cafeteria, carrying Styrofoam mugs of steaming coffee to a vacant table.

"And coffee is supposed to make me change my mind _how_?" Kylie asked sarcastically, as they both sat down.

"I just felt like one," shrugged Roland. "And anyway, it might relax you. The library didn't seem a very appropriate place to have this conversation."

"Why the hell not?"

"Too clinical."

"Go on then," Kylie sighed resignedly. "Persuade me to stay on."

"Well for one thing there can never be too many Ghostbusters," Roland began sedately. "And for another, those guys are getting kinda… well… old. And besides, they have other commitments. Dr. Venkman's family is in LA, and… oh, hi."

"Hi," Garrett smiled half-heartedly, as he and Eduardo approached the table together. "So what's new, guys - anything?"

"Plenty," Roland answered soberly. "Kylie's thinking about quitting."

Neither Garrett nor Eduardo looked as shocked and dismayed as Roland had hoped they would. Eduardo looked rather impassive as he sat down next to Kylie and said, "That doesn't sound like a good idea, Ky. You're a valuable member of the team."

"Why?" snapped Kylie. "The most useful thing I do is read Egon and Ray's books - but what good is that now that they're _both_ there?"

"You're smarter than all of us," Eduardo insisted. "If you leave we might as well all go."

The words were spilling out of Eduardo's mouth before he was even aware of them in his mind. He was prepared to admit to himself how desperately he wanted Kylie to stay. If she left the Ghostbusters, when would he get a chance to see her? At college, perhaps - just occasionally. Looking at her now, morose and lonely in a room filled with the buzz of chattering young people, he felt that tugging pain in his chest again. Now that he realised he loved her, seeing Kylie every day was going to be torture for him. Maybe he should quit the Ghostbusters whether she decided to or not.

"You're right - we might as well all go," Garrett suddenly chimed in. "I mean - look at us: Goth girl, slacker boy, naïve fantasist and cripple."

"GARRETT!" Roland exclaimed, horrified. "I _know_ you don't believe for a minute that your disability gets in the way of your work!"

Garrett simply shrugged and said, "What's it matter if I do or I don't? The fact remains that we're here and the old guys are at the firehouse - or maybe even out on a bust."

"That's true," Roland said coolly. He drained his coffee cup and got to his feet. "Come on - let's get out of here. You three may think we aren't needed, but I'd like a second opinion. If all of the guys can honestly tell us that they neither need nor want our help, we can _all_ quit. Ok?"

They all had work to do, but at that point they didn't much care. Roland's sudden onset of authority meant that they were about to make an important decision that would ultimately affect the rest of their lives. They filed out of the noisy cafeteria and followed Roland outside to his car. They drove all the way to the firehouse in stony silence, every one of them suddenly realising that they were terrified of what might be about to happen. Egon, Winston, Ray and Peter had all been full of reassurances at one time or another over the last few days, but it might all have been to spare the kids' feelings. What would happen if they suddenly asked for a totally honest, unedited answer to the question, _"Do you need us?"_

_"No… we've done it all before and we don't need anyone's help. Sorry."_ They would certainly apologise, but it would be no compensation. This was a good time in their lives. None of them wanted it to end.

No sooner was Roland out of the car than Janine came running up to him, almost in tears, demanding angrily, "Where have you been?"

"College," Roland replied simply, pulling Garrett's folded chair out of the car boot. "Why - what's up?"

"The guys went out on a bust," Janine gabbled frantically. "It was more than two hours ago and I can't reach them via the radio."

"They're probably bowling," Garrett muttered bitterly.

"What?" Janine asked sharply.

"You know," shrugged Garrett. "Bowling. This happened before, remember - on Egon's birthday. They went out on a bust and came back over an hour later with a bowling trophy."

"But surely they would have called!" Janine wailed desperately.

"Ha - yeah, right," scoffed Eduardo. "They're in their forties."

"Maybe it's just a tough job," Roland suggested reasonably. "We've been known to go out on cases that take all day - sometimes even longer."

"But you always keep in radio contact," argued Janine. "You're probably right, but why can't I reach them?"

"It's ok," Kylie cut in, speaking in soothing tones and putting a reassuring hand on Janine's arm. "We'll go out and look for them."

Janine gave them the details of the call, and minutes later they were kitted up and back in the Mustang. Peter, Ray, Winston and Egon had been called to somebody's apartment to investigate some kind of problem - Janine was still upset and hadn't been very clear - but when the team reached the apartment their knock wasn't answered, so they made up their minds to scour the nearby streets.

"Why do ghosts always go for the darkest corner?" Kylie asked dryly, following her PKE meter's lead into a typically sinister darkened alley. "Come on, guys - don't just stand there. For all you know I could be about to - "

She stopped dead, and so suddenly that she had her three companions quite worried for a moment. Garrett, Eduardo and Roland all ventured forwards together, but they stopped in their tracks as soon as they caught sight of what had Kylie so spooked.

Roland was the first to regain the power of speech. "Oh my God," he murmured.

Garrett shook his head disbelievingly, gaping like a goldfish and stammering helplessly, "It can't be. It - it just can't be."

But it was. There, half-concealed in shadow, were the forms of Peter, Ray, Egon and Winston. They stood still and lifeless, eyes and mouths open wide, their proton packs still intact but everything else - hands, faces, hair and clothes - perfectly formed in smooth grey stone.

"What the hell happened?" Kylie whispered, feeling somehow afraid that the slightest sound or movement might damage the statues.

"Even I've heard monster myths like this, Kylie," Eduardo murmured quietly. "But we can fix it though, right? All we need to do is find whatever did this and trap it."

"How can we?" Kylie asked despairingly. "Janine _did_ say something about stone statues suddenly appearing, but nobody has reported seeing a monster. We don't even know what it looks like. Everyone who's seen it…" she tailed off.

"And if any of us sees it we'll go the same way," Roland intoned gravely. "Look, there must be a way around this. But in the meantime we'd better do something with these guys."

"If it can be cured without disabling the monster only Egon would know how to do it," Kylie fretted, and she felt tears pricking the backs of her eyes. "This is awful!"

For a moment they could think of nothing to do but stand and stare in silence, as though willing the problem to go away would actually work. Then Roland suddenly found himself overcome with morbid curiosity. He took a step towards the statues and reached out a hand to the closest one, which happened to be Peter. Roland removed his glove and ran a hand over the rough contours of Peter's hair, the smooth surface of his face, the cold hard lips that framed the gaping hole of his open mouth.

"It feels exactly like a real statue," Roland told his companions soberly. "I can't tell what kind of stone… like it matters," he added scathingly, at once deriding himself for saying something so futile.

"So what's happened to them?" asked Garrett. "Are they still in there? Can they see and hear us, or have they blacked out or what?"

"How can we possibly know?" Kylie returned scathingly. Her eyes fell upon Egon's dark-grey lifeless face and she whispered inaudibly, "Can't you find a way to tell me what to do?"

"Should we tell their families?" Eduardo suddenly asked.

"How can you tell them something like that?" Garrett cried in dismay.

"Dr. Venkman told his kids he'd be home at the weekend," Roland murmured quietly. "Oh my God - this is horrible…"

"Too much talk," Garrett suddenly decided. "We need to get them back to the firehouse. Roland, you'd better fetch your car."

"I'll go too," offered Kylie. "The Ecto-1 was around there somewhere."

"Ok, good," Garrett nodded approvingly. "Well, they can't say we're not needed after this."

"Yeah," Eduardo said expressionlessly, as he watched Kylie and Roland's retreating forms. "They can't say anything much right now."

"But we can fix them," Garrett insisted.

Eduardo raised his eyebrows and asked dubiously, "Can we?"

"Well we'd just better hope so," sighed Garrett, not appreciating Eduardo's cynicism right now. Ok, so they couldn't be sure, but one of these men was engaged to be married and the other three had wives and small children. The possibility that they might be stuck this way forever just didn't bear thinking about.

* * *

Eduardo, Garrett, Kylie and Roland quickly returned to the Firehouse, hoping that they'd be able to find something they could use. An hour after returning Roland and Eduardo were in the lab, browsing Egon's computer. It had been decided that both Kylie and Garrett would go through the case files on Janine's computer while Eduardo and Roland would check the equipment that they could use...which was a lot more tiring than originally thought; there was litterally hundreds of different pieces of equipment that had been invented and put together over the near fifteen years that the company had existed...even if it hadn't done any business.

"Roland...could we try find something...I don't think Egon's gonna like being stone any longer then he already is." Eduardo replied flippantly from a desk chair as he studied a piece of technology he'd dug out, the components appeared to have burnt out and several others were hanging from the device, but it looked like a cobbled together rifel.

"Eduardo, do you have any idea how much equipment there is to look through?" Roland asked irritably. "Besides, Garrett and Kylie are going through the case files...if they find anything they'll let us know." Roland scrolled onto the next page and paused when he saw a listing for a set of 'VR Ecto Scopes', followed by two asterixs. He checked the legend at the bottom of the page, one asterix signified 'Patent Pending' and two signified 'Currently in development'. Intrigued by the listing, Roland clicked on the link and began to read the page.

_GBI Research and Development _

Equipment type: Ecto Scopes

Additional modifications (If Any): Modification for Virual Reality interface

Design Patent owners: E. Spengler, R. Stantz.

Design development by: E. Spengler, R. Stantz

Date of last file modification: 11/25/97

Design Notes: It has been noted in previous cases, including GBNY Casefile 1985-3/244, that the Ecto Scopes, working with specific modifcations, can be used to track entites normally invisible to the human eye, such as poltergeists. The tracking system is usually based off of scanning the PKE signature of an entity and compensating for the phase varience which creates the apparant invisibility. However, the modifications are costly and not prodcued to last for exceptionally long periods of design, usually requiring the Ecto Scopes to be reset to their original parameters. Based on the suggestion of GBNY Staff Member Dr. Ray Stantz, it has been investigated by the GBI Research and Development team of the plausibility of utilising current and potentially future virtual reality equipment to simulate both objects, entities and humans in the case of either adverse weather conditions that limit visibility or in the case of a lack of artificial and natural light, it has been investigated if ultraviolet light emitters can be equipped but results have had varied success.

At the present stage, two models of Ecto Scopes with VR configuration have been developed and constructed with reasonable success, the downsides being that their VR simulations are far more simplified then preferred, and thus cannot be used for precision particle fire. The current system utilises a ultraviolet emitter to project a wave of ultraviolet light, the light is then bounced back and collected by a reciever which is built into the front of the Ecto Scopes, this information is then sent to the CPU unit which attaches to a field belt, once the data has been received the CPU uses this to construct a 3D VR model of the world, including seperate colors for PKE Entities and corporeal beings. At present the VR Ecto Scopes are still being developed and it is both the belief of myself and Dr. Stantz that a fully operatable set won't be available until at least as early as 2015.

ES, RS.

GBI - R&D - 2566.9

Case File Reference:

GBI Casefile GBNY-1985-3/244 codeword: 'Uncle Cyrus'.

"Eduardo...I think I've just found something we could use." Roland mused.

* * *

The next few hours wobbled precariously on the line between disorganisation and mayhem. Roland worked religiously on the ecto-visors (Eduardo and Garrett helping where they could) until his thoughts jumped to his family, at which point he suddenly bolted to the phone and dialled his home number.

"Mom! It's me," he announced breathlessly. "Is everybody home? …Even Dad? …Good. Listen, none of you can go out. There's something out there - probably a Gorgon… Yeah, and if you look at it you'll be turned to stone. So shut all of the doors and windows and everything, ok? Actually - Mom, let me speak to Tara."

Listening as Roland expressed frenziedly to his younger sister how vital it was that she stay in until the threat was eliminated, Eduardo quickly realised that he ought to call and warn his own family of the same thing. His sister-in-law Beth would have collected her son Kevin from school about an hour ago. It might already be too late for them… if Eduardo called home he might not get an answer. But he had to try. And what about Carl? Eduardo had absolutely no idea which shifts his brother did and did not work. All he could do was wait for Roland to get off the line, and then call home and see whether anybody answered.

"I mean it, Tara," Roland was saying heatedly. "You absolutely must not go out tonight!"

"She is _so_ going out tonight," Garrett muttered to Eduardo. He had not yet met Tara Jackson, but he had heard enough about her to realise that she was an extremely typical disobedient teenager.

Kylie was standing in the corner next to Egon's statuesque form. She was chewing on her bottom lip, but otherwise she was in as much a state of catatonia as the statues. Ray, Peter and Winston were still downstairs, as the statues were heavy and nobody felt inclined to move them about too much if it wasn't strictly necessary. But Egon, it was unanimously agreed, simply _had_ to be kept out of sight of Janine. She wanted to stay with him, but Roland had quickly deduced that she couldn't cope with that. It had taken a lot of persuading to get her to stay downstairs. Even Slimer had been recruited to the cause, which had the desired of effect of obtaining Janine's agreement if it would _shut them up_!

"Staring at him ain't gonna do him no good," Eduardo suddenly snapped.

Kylie turned her head, dark hair flying back from her tear-stained face, and she glared hatefully at him. Trying not to cry had been a hard-fought battle, which overall she had probably won. A few treacherous tears had escaped, but for the most part she had managed to hold back. The two thin lines of mascara staining her cheeks didn't do justice to what she was feeling. Garrett and Roland were almost tempted to say that maybe she should stay out of Egon's way as well, but it seemed such a fallacy to compare her grief to Janine's. Only one of these women was expecting to _marry_ the man!

As soon as Roland was back working on the visors, Eduardo went and snatched up the phone. He dialled his home number and waited.

"I could really use some help here, Kylie," ventured Roland, his tone entirely devoid of expression as his thoughts were now primarily on his unpredictable sister.

The sixth ring trilled ominously in Eduardo's ear. He didn't put the phone down just yet, still hoping. Maybe Kevin was in the bathroom and Beth was - what? - elbow-deep in the night's dinner, perhaps. Maybe they had gone to a friend's house after school. Maybe the TV was on so loud they couldn't hear the phone. Maybe…

"Sure." Kylie pulled herself together and stepped back from Egon. "I'd just kinda like to - you know - wash my face," and she shuffled off towards the bathroom.

The receiver clattered noisily onto its cradle and Eduardo sat down heavily on the nearest chair. To his mind there was little doubt that his sister-in-law and nephew, both of whom he liked a great deal, were both trapped in bodies of lifeless stone. And Kylie… why was she taking Egon's fate so badly? Did she feel that way about Ray too? She definitely had a crush on him as well, and Eduardo found he was seething with jealousy. He knew - just knew - that if he was turned to stone, Kylie wouldn't be nearly this upset. But how he would feel if it happened to her… it hurt just thinking about it. Why did he have to snap at her like that? The way she had looked at him, her usually big green eyes narrowed with anger and disgust, broke his heart.

"What if this doesn't work?" Kylie asked quietly, drawing up beside Roland. Her face wasn't streaked with jagged black lines anymore, but her eyes were raw and the tears still threatened to spill over.

"If it doesn't work," Roland replied gravely, "we'll just have to pray that there's somebody else out there who can help."

Despite it all, however, they at last settled down and worked earnestly for another hour. They took their breaks in turns, always checking up on Janine and finding her a little less negative with every visit. All felt sure that her devastation could not have decreased, but she was learning to hide it well. As the time passed her thoughts turned to people other than herself. On Garrett's visit she confided that she had thought about calling the guys' wives. They had a right to know - and leave it up to them to decide whether the children should be told.

"Don't," Garrett ordered firmly. "We're going to stop it. They'll be this way for a couple more hours at the most. Their families don't need to know until it's over."

"What if they call?" asked Janine. "People are becoming statues all over New York. A story like that can't avoid press coverage for long."

"It can," Garrett answered grimly. "If everybody from the press is a statue."

When Garrett returned to the rest of the team, they were ready to go. They had a very strong PKE trail to follow, made sinisterly easy by the human statues lining the sidewalks that confirmed they were on the right track. The situation had become a great deal worse during their time away from it. The whole of Manhattan was now a giant art gallery, its people immortalised in a less than beautiful stone, all at some halfway point in their everyday lives.

The roads were thick with grimy snow, nobody being available - or rather animate - to clear them. Driving through the city was quite a mission. Plenty of people had turned to stone whilst crossing the roads - but the Ghostbusters scarcely noticed this next to all of the crashed cars, buses and taxis. The drivers' cold and lifeless stone fingers gripped the steering wheels while the engines spluttered in protest. People had been hit, but close examination on the first two encounters showed that no damage had been done. Not a chip on any of them. Evidently this stone was hardy stuff.

Some people must have taken to their homes like the Jackson family had done, but it looked like they were a minority. This Medusa - or whatever - was running out of victims here. Maybe she (or he? - they had no idea) would move on. Or maybe not. There was no reason to assume that the thing derived any pleasure or sustenance from turning people to stone. From what Kylie could remember of Greek Mythology, this unfortunate side effect of looking at Medusa was quite unintentional on her part.

Roland drew the Ecto-1 to a halt when they reached Times Square, and the four Ghostbusters alighted. With the extinguishing of the car's siren, a deathly silence fell over the city. There were cars all around: parked cars, crashed cars, parked cars that moving cars had crashed into. A police motorcycle had been hit by a taxi. The cab driver and his passenger sat immobile in the car, but there was no sign of the police officer that had been driving the cycle. Still, whoever it was evidently wasn't the only cop working this extraordinary case. Two police cars had hit each other head-on when their drivers became stone - probably out looking for the officer or officers they had lost contact with.

The air felt bitingly cold, the small snowflakes falling slowly and steadily. It was getting dark and the street lamps were coming on, illuminating the statues lining the streets in a dull orange light. It wasn't just people that had fallen victim to the Gorgon. Stone rats lined the alleyways, their eyes wide with terror, some of them standing on hind legs and holding morsels of food halfway to their open mouths. Scores of pigeons on both roof and ground level had fallen victim to the monster's curse. A few of the human statues held leashes tied to stone dogs, and here and there was a statuesque cat. They were all coated with soft white snow - nothing like the icy grey sludge that had been trodden into the roads. It occurred to Kylie that if she didn't think about what all of this meant, it was almost beautiful.

"Do not remove the visors for a _moment_," she cautioned her teammates, evidently now over her hysteria. "I think we should split up, just in case something goes wrong. We can't all be turned to stone - I really don't think Janine could save the city on her own. Guys" - she turned to Garrett and Eduardo - "I think it's safe to say that Roland and I would have more idea what to do in the event of failure than either of you two."

"I'm not going to argue," Garrett smiled dryly.

"Then Roland and I must stay separate to ensure that at least one of us stays animate," asserted Kylie. "We have to keep in constant radio contact. If anybody tries to communicate and doesn't receive an answer, assume the worst and take cover until you can decide on a course of action. Eduardo, come with me."

Garrett watched Eduardo and Kylie's retreating forms as they ventured into the shadows, and he remarked casually to Roland, "Kinda reminds me of _Scooby-Doo_. 'Velma - you, Shaggy and Scooby take the basement. Daphne and I will go up to the attic and make out.' Hey!" This when Roland, obviously not having heard a word, suddenly sprinted off in an apparently random direction and then skidded to a halt beside a pair of stone statues.

Garrett wheeled quickly after Roland, weaving expertly between the stone men, women and children that blocked his path. Darkness was fast descending over them, but Garrett could clearly see his friend's mortified expression illuminated in the artificial light above them. He was staring at one statue in particular: a girl with a mass of tiny mini-braids, clumped together and bumpy in their stony state. She had a generous curvy figure, the outline of a tight tank top and mini-skirt (_In this weather?_ thought Garrett) clearly visible in the perfectly crafted stone. Garrett looked at her face. It was pretty even in that state with big eyes, thickset lips and a snub nose. She and her male companion were almost certainly black, Garrett could tell, despite the absence of any skin pigment. Though far from proof, this simple fact made it seem more likely that the girl was related to Roland.

"Who is she?" Garrett asked carefully.

"My sister," Roland answered, in strangely detached tones.

"Ah man, I'm sorry," Garrett sympathised. "But look, it'll be ok. She'll be back to normal in no time. Maybe we should - you know - get on and do something."

Roland's expression suddenly darkened as he came back to reality, and he exclaimed heatedly, "I told her not to go out! Boy Tara, is Mom gonna ground _you_ when I get you home!"

"Roland…"

"And who's _this_?" Roland squeaked hysterically, gesturing at the statue whose hand was cupped unashamedly over the back of Tara's immodest skirt. "My sister is fifteen, you sick pervert!"

"Really?" asked Garrett, his eyes moving over Tara's ample bust as Roland heaved the other statue some yards away from her. "She looks older. Hey, Roland - what's the point of that? He can't do much to her while they're like this."

"I don't care," snapped Roland. "He has no right to touch her… there. Who the hell is he anyway? I'm sure I've never seen him before. How old do you think he is?"

"It's hard to tell," Garrett replied cautiously. "Sixteen? Seventeen?"

"Oh come on! He looks at least nineteen and you know it!"

"Roland, maybe we should get on with trying to find this thing."

"I can't believe she went out! I told her - "

"ROLAND!"

"What?"

"Come _on_!"

Garrett's walkie-talkie crackled as he said this, and he heard Kylie's voice breaking over the wavelength, not at all clear. He snatched up the radio on his belt and asked it tentatively, "Kylie?"

She said something else. Garrett caught two words - "radio" and "sidewalk" - and he couldn't even be sure that he had heard correctly. "Looks like we're gonna have trouble staying in touch," he told Roland dryly. "Seems to me there's a fifty-fifty chance each time that splitting up will turn out to be a _good_ idea."

* * *

Kylie, meanwhile, was not taking the communication breakdown quite so calmly. When she failed to get through to either Garrett or Roland, she shook her walkie-talkie mercilessly and then threw herself onto a convenient bench, exclaiming heatedly, "The _f-cking_ radios aren't working!"

Eduardo, who had been recoiling disgustedly at the snow-covered stone likeness of a particularly large rat, turned round in surprise. Kylie, sitting forward on the bench, was still punishing her radio by threatening to break it against the icy concrete at her feet. Eduardo hurried over and snatched the unfortunate object from her hand, saying soothingly, "Take it easy, Ky. It'll be ok."

"Can you qualify that theory?" Kylie asked coldly.

"It just _has_ to be," Eduardo insisted. "Have you seen this mess?" and he gestured widely to their surroundings. "We're the only people who can clean it up, and it ain't the first time that's happened. We - whoa!"

Kylie looked up in surprise when Eduardo suddenly abandoned his motivational speech mid-sentence and ran to something several yards behind the bench. She got up slowly and followed him; by the time she reached him he was gingerly extracting a revolver from the lifeless stone hand of his older brother.

"Don't want any accidents," Eduardo said expressionlessly.

Kylie looked in the direction the gun had been pointing. A newspaper stand, a Krazy's, and a young girl with a cute Jack Russell terrier (both stone, of course) were all within firing range. Eduardo had had the sense to flip the safety catch before trying to free the gun from the unbending finger poised on the trigger. It was a difficult job, but eventually he was able to drop the revolver into the snow at his brother's feet with a look of disgust.

"Was he trying to shoot the Gorgon?" wondered Kylie.

"Probably," shrugged Eduardo. "That's his answer to everything."

The snow was falling faster now, the glare from the street lamps creating miniature blizzards as streams of light illuminated the flakes caught in the icy wind that had been building with the darkness. Standing still, Kylie suddenly realised how cold it was, and she was gripped with a searing pain in her breasts as the skin contracted tightly. She instinctively wrapped her arms around herself, but whatever warmth was there could not penetrate her tough outer layers of clothing. This whole fiasco was getting worse and worse. She glanced at Eduardo, watching his breath like steam spiralling on the wind, but if the cold bothered him he didn't let it show.

"Are you ok?" asked Kylie.

Eduardo shook his head. "This is so weird."

"What?"

"I don't feel anything."

"It'd be different if you didn't know he was going to be ok."

"Would it?" Eduardo asked dubiously. "How do I know he's going to be ok?"

"What were you telling me just now?" countered Kylie. "It's got to be ok. We have to do this. Failure is not an option."

"Right," Eduardo nodded slowly. "Because it's not like he's the only one. I think that Kevin and Beth…" he tailed off.

"Don't think," advised Kylie. "Let's just do it," and she whipped out her PKE meter. "Come on. The trail leads this way."

* * *

Janine looked at the silent phone for the fifth time in as many minutes. She looked at the door. She looked at the frozen forms of her three closest friends in the world, still standing there.

All stood there with expressions of horror...Ray and Winston looking like they were trying to aim their throwers...Venkman just simply dumbstruck.

_And he didn't tuck his pants in as usual..._ she sneered to herself, regarding the blue cuff exposed over his boots. _And you, Ray, are starting to need a shave really badly. Yeah, that's it, Janine, keep trying to make funnies of it...try not to let it all sink in..._

_What am I gonna tell Dana, and Kaila, and..._ she stopped herself angrily. _Don't go there. Roland and the others are good. Probably better than Egon and the others were with only a few months on the job._ Of course, some of that had to do with having what Egon, Peter, Ray, and Winston didn't have when they first started--a couple of experienced Ghostbusters to show them the ropes...

_Oh. F--. This._

She turned and walked briskly to the staircase.

Slimer appeared. He held up his green arms and babbled something along the lines of "You're not supposed to go up there..." following orders from Roland.

He tapered off. He knew that look--standing in her way would be futile, and probably get him hurt.

She inhaled deeply and opened the door to the lab.

A silent piece of stone wearing her fiance's flight suit stood there, PKE meter still tight in his stony clutch. Interestingly enough, she noticed it was one of the older models...the design he'd carried for all of the years between the battle with Gozer and the incident with Akira, as opposed to the upgrade he and Roland had masterminded.

"What have you gotten yourself into this time, Spengler?" she asked the silent statue. "Everytime I turn around you're getting sent to the Netherlands, possessed, unleashing dragons, infected by cursed potato chips, regressed to infancy, or turned into a werechicken..." She picked a piece of lint off of his pink collar.

"That's why I'm not freaking out, Egon." she said firmly. "I know you've had worse than this done to you...no way this is gonna stick now. Not now, not when we finally have so much to live for."

She regarded the ring on her finger. Against her will, she sniffled. She pulled something out of her own pocket--the twin of the coin she'd given to him over fourteen years before...

"What was it you said, Egon? 'For some reason I could never part with it, even in the depths of my depressions...because I somehow had this odd feeling...that if I disposed of it, you'd never come back to me'...that was me too, Egon." she held it to her heart. "Even in the grand total of like a month I thought things would work for Louis and I...I could never let this go."

She realized the tears were flowing now, but didn't care. "Married, Egon...we're getting married...and if Adonai is willing, there's a tiny Spengler or two in our future...that's why you're going to get through this...I..."

She reached up and kissed him...

Nothing happened.

"Well...you never know...that works sometimes in the fairy tales..." she chuckled with very little humor.

* * *

_"Kylie… you do realise we may not get out of this alive?"_

"Don't say that, Eduardo. I'm not ready to die."

"Neither am I. But I gotta admit I can think of worse ways to go."

"Eduardo!"

"Well Kylie, look at this. It's… it's beautiful! We'd be immortalised forever. And if that happens to me, there's nothing I'd want more than to be with - "

Whoa, stop, too cheesy. Far, far too cheesy._ I want our love to be preserved forever in stone, Kylie_ - that would make even the most romantic soul want to puke. Scratch that and start again.

_"Neither am I. But if anything should… happen to one of us, there's something I want you to know… I love you, Kylie." _Hmm… bordering on cheesy again, perhaps…

"Oh Eduardo! I didn't dare hope…"

He catches his breath sharply and turns to look at her. Slight hesitation and then, "Kylie… does that mean…?"

"Yes! I love you too!"

Up on tiptoe, arms round neck, encircle waist, pick her up, three-hundred-and-sixty degree turn.

_"I can't help thinking about Egon…" _

"Kylie, please… I thought…"

"No no." She presses her fingers against his lips to stop him - very nice effect. "I didn't mean that. It's just that… well, he and Janine fell in love all those years ago and they only just got engaged. And now look at them. Think of all the years of happiness they could have had before this happened, but they missed out on all of it. Eduardo… I don't want to waste time like they did. If we get out of this alive… I want to marry you."

"Well then." This would be a good time to kiss her, if you haven't done it already. "Now I'm even more determined that we'll get out of this alive."

Wow. That was different. Eduardo was surprised by how much being in love had altered his imagination. If it was a movie that he was watching, he knew it would make him want to throw up. But inside his head, when he saw it happening to himself and Kylie, he wanted it more than any of the other fantasies. This surprised him too when he realised it. It was an entirely different kind of vision: a far cry from the original fantasy born on the night of the Akira incident. It had started when Kylie asked him to kiss her; as he leant towards her he had started to imagine all of the things he didn't dare hope might happen next. And he still imagined it to this day: how the situation might have developed if Kylie had been in her right mind; if she had been saying the words rather than the demon possessing her.

Coincidentally Kylie too had been thinking about the whole Akira incident. She still burned with humiliation whenever she thought of it, particularly in Eduardo's company. That demon had read her so astonishingly accurately… Akira knew the guise with which to entice her before she even clapped eyes on her. And then when she was actually inside her head… Kylie remembered her anger, and her words to Roland, Garrett and Eduardo when she was finally free to express it: _"She pretended to be my Grandma Rose!"_ That had been bad enough, but she didn't add that something else had made her furious with Akira: that the demon had burrowed down to her most intimate thoughts, pulled out the shaming ideas she'd had about Eduardo and done what she herself would never dream of doing: saying them out loud, and to _him_ of all people. Trapped inside her own body with Akira controlling her, Kylie had felt herself acting out the fantasies that were supposed to say deeply rooted in the darkest recesses of her mind. At the end of it all, when challenged by Eduardo, she'd felt that she had no choice but to disassociate herself entirely from Akira's actions: _"I have no idea what you're talking about…"_ Her humiliation burnt more fiercely when she thought of Eduardo's reaction to her advances: she had felt his excitement pounding in his chest as she… Akira had pressed her body against his…

"Shit," Eduardo murmured, and suddenly Kylie felt herself dragged forcibly into the nearest back-alley.

"What are you…?"

"I think I've just seen it."

"Seriously?"

Eduardo nodded mutely and so Kylie, ecto-scope already in place, ventured to peer out into the street. The creature had its back to them. It was impossible to tell how human it was, if at all, as its body was hidden in a long black garment that betrayed nothing in the way of shape, not even whether it had arms and/or legs. But this had to be it, the monster's identity betrayed by the wings on its back and the cluster of black and dark-green snakes that hung from its head, swaying limply back and forth and occasionally lunging at one another if they got in each other's way. Kylie sucked in her breath and retreated back into the darkened alley, whispering furtively, "Can we hold her here until the others arrive?"

"I thought we couldn't contact the others," Eduardo reminded her.

"Try," ordered Kylie, going to risk another look at the creature.

Eduardo pulled out his walkie-talkie, gave it a shake and then tried using it: "Guys? Can either of you hear me? C'mon - we've found it!"

_"Eddie?"_ It was Garrett's voice, cracked and only just audible. _"Did you just say you've found it?"_

Kylie picked up her own radio and joined in the conversation: "I can only see her back view but I think she's eating. Let's hope it's just a burger - we're near a Krazy's. I don't think she ate live prey in the original legend… Anyway, can you guys get over here?"

"Did you get all that?" asked Eduardo, as his own radio starting crackling in protest to Kylie's nearness.

_"Most of it,"_ replied Garrett. _"Can you be a little more specific than 'we're near a Krazy's'? We'll bring the car - maybe Roland can ram her into a wall or something, and then it shouldn't be too difficult to trap her."_

Kylie started to give some more detailed directions, watching the creature through the ecto-scope the whole time, but then she suddenly gasped and pulled herself sharply back into the alleyway as the woman - for it was now obvious that she was a woman - started walking towards her.

"She's moving," Kylie murmured into the walkie-talkie. "Headed west. Just keep going where I told you and your PKE meters should do the rest."

She made a move towards Eduardo, as she was fast losing sight of him in the darkened alley, and instinctively grabbed onto his arm. They were in a dead-end alley whose only exit was flooded with artificial light, so she was unlikely to lose him, but it just felt safer that way. She felt him tense when she touched him. They were both very aware of their racing hearts - it was, to be frank, a shit scary situation. The four Ghostbusters weren't quite the only people in New York not turned to stone, but the streets were silent and deserted so they might just as well be. If it happened to them too… if there had been some minor calculation while they were modifying the ecto-scopes…

There was a moment of surprise when Eduardo and Kylie suddenly found themselves illuminated in a bright yellow glare, but then the familiar engine sound of the Ecto-1 told them what was happening and even managed to reassure them both. Kylie caught Roland's eye as he drove, and she gave him a small wave and a somewhat half-hearted smile of encouragement.

"Take a left here," ordered Garrett, carefully studying his PKE meter. "This thing's about ready to explode."

Roland did as he was told. The creature - the Gorgon, as they'd decided to call it - hadn't had time to get far. Of course she heard the engine noise, and Roland registered the movement of her writhing snake-covered head just in time to spin the car around and retreat a few yards before slowing to a complete stop.

"Do not look at it," he murmured to Garrett.

"How stupid do you think I am?" Garrett retorted.

"She sure _looks_ like Medusa," Roland remarked. "And we had Cerberus to deal with the other day. So what'll be next - Harpies and a Minotaur?"

"She's coming towards us," Garrett hissed urgently, seeing movement in the rear-view mirror from the corner of his eye as his ears somehow caught the rustle of the creature's long black garment as she walked. Wow… it really _was_ eerily quiet.

Roland suddenly took on a look of pure determination and pulled the car into reverse. He slammed down on the accelerator with a force that Garrett had never seen from him before even in an emergency, and the car shot backwards at breakneck speed. Roland felt the bump against the back of the car, and waited until both the back wheels and the front had run over whatever it was he hit before he stopped. Well, he had to assume he'd hit the Gorgon, but as he'd been so careful not to look at his target (he wasn't _that_ confident of his protective visor) he couldn't be one hundred percent sure. Praying silently, he started to climb out of the car. He could see a vague shape on the ground in front of him, but the visor in front of his eyes was fast clouding over with snow. He squinted through it at the ground, and could no longer make out movement. He could see what he thought was the bundle of snakes, but even they didn't appear to be moving. Taking a deep breath, he reached for the snow-covered visor.

A few hundred yards away, Kylie and Eduardo had heard the screech of brakes, the sound of impact and the ensuing ominous silence. They had to assume that the Gorgon was still alive, as the people surrounding them were still motionless. (Of course if it turned out that they couldn't be released simply by trapping the creature there was going to be a hell of a lot more work to do…) Kylie led the way, Eduardo following reluctantly as she rounded the corner. They could just about make out Roland's form halfway out of the car… not moving… _Oh shit no, surely not…_

"Oh I don't _believe_ it!" Kylie yelled exasperatedly, running over to the Ecto-1 and staring at Roland in absolute dismay. His hand holding the visor - this now stone, just to exacerbate things, as he was still half-wearing it - was caked in snow. Garrett was sitting in the car, in exactly the same state, cold and unmoving. "All they had to do was not look at her! I mean it's not exactly what you might call difficult, is it!"

Eduardo was reminded of the Tenebrach incident, when he too had broken the golden rule of not looking and accidentally taken an eyeful of the Orb of Moldova. He knew very well that not looking at the thing you were after could be surprisingly difficult. Even so, it didn't look as though these guys had made much of an effort. They were both staring fixedly at the ground straight in front of the car. Presumably then they had hit her… but she sure as hell wasn't there now.

"Kylie," murmured Eduardo. "Where is she?"

"She's somewhere behind us," Kylie hissed furtively. "I don't think she's too close right now but she's coming nearer. Come on - let's get outta here."

They were about to move off - go anywhere but here - but a crackle on the car radio stopped them. Janine's voice was faint and distant at first, but the signal soon cleared considerably as though her own distress and determination alone were enough to penetrate a severe communications breakdown.

_"What's going on?"_ the voice cried desperately. _"Will somebody __please_ answer me?"

"Janine," Kylie said briskly, snatching up the radio. "We've - um - hit a temporary setback… but it's going to be fine."

_"What kind of setback?"_ demanded Janine.

"It's nothing. Really. It's going to be fine." She hoped she sounded a lot surer of what she was saying than she felt. "They'll be fine, honestly. I think we're pretty close to trapping her now. Look… we've gotta keep moving. Just hang in there, ok?"

"Kylie…" ventured Eduardo, frowning with concern at his PKE meter's increasing excitement. "She's close."

Kylie simply nodded and instinctively grabbed his hand, finding that she was grateful for the warmth that managed to penetrate both his glove and hers. She felt the pressure on her hand increasing, but she didn't mind; she quite understood that Eduardo was scared. So was she. It was just the two of them left now. As they walked, Kylie wondered where they should go and what they should do. She was tempted to walk to the Jacksons' house and hole up with them… but it didn't seem exactly constructive.

"Kylie," Eduardo said quietly. He was studying his PKE meter. "I think she's following us."

"Why?" wondered Kylie. "She didn't actually go after people in the original Greek legend. She turned them to stone totally by accident, as far as I recall."

"Well this ain't ancient Greece."

"This just gets better and better! What the hell are we supposed to do now?"

"Keep walking and find some cover. We're not safe in the open."

Kylie nodded and increased her pace in a gesture of determination. She was aware that she still had a good grip on Eduardo's hand. It was encouraging to feel the heat from it, and the movement of his fingers. Even though each knew perfectly well that the other was entirely all right, the certainty of touch was reassuring to both of them.

* * *

They hadn't been walking for long before Eduardo asked, "Where exactly are we going?"

"We need somewhere with a lot of cover," Kylie decided, all the while keeping an eye on her PKE meter. "She's gaining. C'mon - let's see if we can hide out in there for a while."

She was looking at a supermarket over the road. She led Eduardo through the statues and trodden-down snow, both of them still amazed by how surreal this all was, perhaps even not quite believing it. Kylie remembered the paper on the history of three-dimensional art that she was supposed to be writing. All the time she'd been researching it she kept thinking of the Gorgon-esque myths: Medusa, obviously, and the eastern legends of people turning to stone for whatever reason - looking over their shoulder at a bad moment whilst climbing a cursed mountain, or encountering a malevolent being with a more unpleasant version on the Midas touch. She hadn't even started that damn paper yet. And Pagan would be howling for his supper by now… unless the creature had penetrated Kylie's attic room and done its dirty work on her cat.

"The signal's weakening," Eduardo observed, gently removing his hand from Kylie's. "Whoa - looks like she's already been here."

Checkout workers, bag boys, shelf stackers and weekday shoppers stood lifelessly all over the supermarket with various items of food in their cold stone hands. Both Eduardo and Kylie were suddenly very aware that they hadn't eaten since lunchtime, and now it was getting on for midnight. Kylie wandered over to a shelf stacked with various snack foods and picked up a multipack of ready salted crisps.

"You want some potato chips?" she asked, pulling open the large red packet.

"Sure," shrugged Eduardo, catching the small bag that Kylie threw to him. "Thanks. I suppose if we're about to save these people's asses they can't object to us borrowing a few things."

They each selected a soda can from the fridge near the exit and then made for the far corner of the store, where they slumped to the ground behind a shelf stacked with flour and sugar and the like. They took a moment to wolf down the stolen food and drink. Working non-stop all day with a nagging fear at the back of their minds had made them tired, hungry and thirsty. They were glad of a break.

"I think we've given her the slip," Kylie suddenly said, studying her gently humming PKE meter.

"Good," was Eduardo's response to that. "She'll find us, but in the meantime I think we could use a break."

"Everybody in New York is a statue," Kylie went on. "It's a horrible thought."

"Janine isn't," Eduardo pointed out.

"Yeah. And Roland's family." There hadn't been time for them to hear about Tara. "It's still pretty pig-awful, though. And I might as well tell you that I'm shit scared of it happening to us."

_"It won't happen to us, Kylie. I know I'm pretty useless but you can do anything because you are such an amazing woman. That's why I love you." _

"I love you too, Eduardo! Kiss me!"

"Hey," Eduardo ventured quietly. "You're not still thinking about quitting, are you?"

Kylie shook her head and said, "You and I are the only ones who haven't been turned to stone. I think that says something for our abilities as Ghostbusters."

"I probably wouldn't have made it without you."

"Yeah, well… ditto. You spotted her and pulled me into that alley, remember."

_"There's so much more I want us to do together, Kylie. It's not just tonight - I don't want to go through the rest of my life without you." _

"I meant what I said, Eduardo… about Egon and Janine… and us."

Eduardo gave himself a metaphorical slap around the face. This was neither the time nor the place. It would be nice, he thought, if he had the courage actually to say all of these things to her. Now seemed like a pretty good time to do it… especially as it might be his last chance. He wondered what would happen if he gave in to the strong urge to kiss her, which had become almost permanent over the last few days. He'd thought about it a lot, right down to the last detail of how much black lipstick would be left on his mouth afterwards. Vaguely Eduardo wondered if he had yet crossed the line between just thinking about her and obsessing.

"She's getting closer," Kylie suddenly announced, pulling the protective visor over her eyes. "If she's got our trail - however she does it - I don't think it'll be much longer before she gets here."

"So what's the plan?" asked Eduardo.

"Keep your eyes open for movement and shoot when she gets near enough," ordered Kylie. "And difficult as it may be, we must try so hard not to look at her. I'm really not sure I trust these things," and she tapped the visor over her eyes. "Well… good luck."

"Yeah, you too."

The PKE meters were getting really excited now. The chilling sensation on the backs of their necks may have been purely psychosomatic from fear, or perhaps it was just that some of the freezing cold air from outside was penetrating the doors and windows… or maybe the Gorgon really did bring it with her. Either way Eduardo and Kylie both felt it. The ecto-scopes were firmly in place (however much Kylie didn't trust them), and they both had their proton guns in hand.

The Gorgon sauntered through the aisles with all the majesty of a queen. As she listened apprehensively to her approach, her heart hammering frantically, Kylie remembered the Medusa legend as she had heard it: Athena was angry with Medusa, then beautiful, for getting down and dirty with Poseidon in one of her temples. Understandably upset, she had cursed Medusa with claws and wings (not much of a punishment, Kylie thought - they might come in handy) and snake-hair and made her so ugly that anybody who looked at her turned to stone. Perseus had been the one to kill her, protected by some magic shield or other, by cutting off her head. Immediately afterwards it was revealed that Poseidon had made her pregnant in a somewhat unconventional way: as soon as her head left her body she had given birth to Pegasus, the winged horse, which had come through totally the wrong exit by flying out of her neck. _It would be so cool if that happened now,_ thought Kylie. But they didn't have a sword - only a ghost trap. There wasn't even a chance.

Kylie's mistrust in the ecto-scopes had evidently been unfounded. She suddenly found herself looking straight at the Medusa, the monster's beady black eyes staring at her with a puzzled expression. Kylie felt herself frozen to the spot, the possibility of being turned to stone absolutely nowhere in her mind. To her intense shame and annoyance, she was freaked out by the snakes again. They were writhing, hissing and _looking at her_. She could almost have sworn they were laughing at her. She remembered Cerberus in Tower Records, and the sheer uselessness his five snakes had evoked in her. She thought back to the maggot incident in the basement inhabited by Fear Itself: the fifteen-foot "lard-butt mother of all maggots" (Garrett's words, of course) that burst on impact in a most spectacular fashion and oozed a lot of lovely green slime when dropped from a great height. Well, at least the snakes weren't maggots - that would be ten times worse. It occurred to Kylie that maybe she should try to get over these phobias. Apparently you can never tell when not being absolutely petrified by hairless wriggly creatures with no limbs might come in handy.

"Eduardo!" hissed Kylie, backing slowly away from the Gorgon and her unique and terrifying hairstyle.

Eduardo turned towards the sound of her voice, and then instinctively turned back slightly when he caught sight of the now familiar black garment encasing the Gorgon's body. She was still in his peripheral vision, though. The eerie almost-silence was broken by the sudden sound of Kylie's proton pistol bursting into life, and Eduardo squinted against the beam that the gun emitted. He quickly added his own contribution to the fire, and saw that the Gorgon was screaming and writhing in the two proton streams, the snakes going absolutely crazy.

Of course one of life's first rules is that nothing is ever easy. Eduardo felt his proton stream struggle against the creature's lively protest, and when he looked over at Kylie he saw that she was obviously experiencing some difficulty. The trap was on her back, but she couldn't seem to take either hand off her proton gun. For some reason, Eduardo felt compelled to do what Egon had always told him not to do and look at the trap. For a moment he met the Medusa's eyes. He couldn't be sure if it was his imagination, but he could swear that he felt his fingers stiffening, and he was suddenly overcome with the sensation that he couldn't move. With it however he felt the creature's efforts against his fire weakening. With the feeling of immobility in his arms and hands, he couldn't do very much about it - but Kylie seized her advantage and reached for the trap.

The creature started to scream again. Eduardo felt his fingers limber up, and he reacted quickly, shutting of his proton stream as Kylie closed the trap. They squinted against the brilliant light, compelled to watch as the creature was sucked inside. For Kylie the snakes seemed to linger for a moment, staring at her through yellow eyes, looking exactly as though were thinking how nice it would be to wriggle over there and bite her.

Eduardo breathed out heavily and ran his fingers through his hair a few times, instinctively looking towards Kylie. She practically ripped of her visor and stared at the trap, half expecting that damn woman to jump out of it and turn them both to stone. It only seemed likely after she'd caused them so much trouble.

"You ok?" asked Eduardo.

"Sure," shrugged Kylie. "Wow. What a bitch, huh?"

Eduardo was reminded again of the whole Tenebrach saga. He and Kylie had taken care of that one together, just like now. They had almost hugged at the end of it. He remembered that he had been as quick to stop that as Kylie had, but that was in the days when he tried to kid himself that he wasn't really _that_ interested. And even if he was he didn't want to let Kylie know… But perhaps this time was different. He definitely _wanted_ to give her that hug.

Oh, what the hell? He marched over to her and did it. It was chummy: just a congratulatory thing like you might give your teammates after a sports match. He sensed her confusion and tried to help her over it by acting naturally, tousling her hair in a friendly gesture and saying, "See? You're not so useless after all. I knew you could do it without Egon."

"Yeah, well," shrugged Kylie, not quite feeling like pushing him away. "I _had_ to."

They separated by silent mutual agreement. Eduardo looked down into her slightly dazed green eyes and thought again about kissing her. But then a disorientated old dear wandered over to them with a trolley full of groceries, and Eduardo and Kylie found themselves having to explain to a group of confused shoppers what had happened to the last ten hours.

* * *

The last thing he remembered was the creature turning to look at him...a split second of horrified realization..._It greatly resembles the mythological creature Medusa, the Gorgon, who was capable of transmogrifying anyone who gazed upon her into stone...Ray, Winston, Peter, do not..._

But his throat had frozen up before he could shout any warning...

...and the next thing Egon Spengler knew, he was standing in his own laboratory at Ghostbusters Central. Janine was standing there, eyes red, looking at him with shock and joy.

She grabbed him and hugged him tightly before he could say anything.

He returned the embrace, but had to ask..."We were out on a bust...Ray, Winston, and Peter, what happened to them?"

"They're downstairs...probably wondering what happened to them...and where you are, I bet..."

"Are you all right?' he asked.

"Am I all right?!" she asked incredulously. "You were the one turned into stone, for Adonai's sake!! You really need to stop scaring me like that..." With that, she kissed him.

Ray appeared at the doorway. "Egon! You're here! That's a relief...Peter and Winston and I came to downstairs and you weren't there..." he turned and shouted "He's up here, guys!!"

Ray turned back to the couple. "Or should I leave you alone for a while?"

Egon turned to Janine. "I am going to presume Roland and the others captured the creature, thus breaking it's spell. I'm sure they're going to want to see everybody."

She winked at him as they walked to the stairway, hand in hand. "Yeah...plenty of time for hanky-panky later..."

* * *

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